Memory Monday: Great Aunt Era and the Loss of Family History

Vera and Era

GREAT-AUNT ERA AND THE LOSS OF FAMILY HISTORY

I think one of my saddest family interviews was with my husband’s great-aunt Era.  She was in her mid-90s when I interviewed her. Her lifetime had been filled with so many events—WWI, Pearl Harbor, the end of WWII, the first moon walk,  the Kennedy assassination, long dresses to mini-skirts to women wearing pants (which she did), and so very many more. We wanted to record what it was like to live through those events. Unfortunately, her answer to so many of my questions was, “That was so long ago. I just don’t remember any more.”  She was the twin sister to my husband’s grandmother and the last of her generation.  Now all that family history is lost.

           Our videotapes hold a wealth of family history—stories of happy and sad times, memories of those long gone, keys to why certain people turned out the way they have.  They are links tying our past to our future.

            Interesting tidbit about Great-aunt Era and her twin sister, Vera—my husband’s grandmother: On one of our visits to see them, we brought a cake to celebrate their birthday. The cake had two old ladies in rocking chairs piped in icing on the top and the wording “Happy 80^th Birthday” in-between the two chairs. Well, this caused a big discussion between the two ladies. Even though they agreed on the month and day of their birthday (December 12^th), they disagreed vigorously about the year. Vera said 1898 and Era said 1897. They both held their position as the right one. Well, through our genealogy research, we know that 1897 is correct. The family figures that since Grandmother married a man born in early 1898, she stated that she was born in 1898 so she would be younger than him. Oh well, I guess the lesson I take from this—even a hundred years ago, women were vain about their age.

Throwback Thursday: Toddler and Infant in Carriage

Here's my caption:
"Look, Ma! He followed me home. Can I keep him?"

What's your caption? Feel free to leave it in the Comment Section below.

Memory Monday: My Grandmother and Videotaping

Grandma Koehn

MY GRANDMOTHER AND VIDEOTAPING

Several years ago, my grandmother was at our house for supper. With her getting older, we wanted to capture some of her memories to pass down to our children.

We wanted it to be a casual time, not an interview situation.  Well, we set the camcorder up at the side of the dining table, focused on her. Now you have to understand that my grandmother could barely see; she literally could only see a couple of inches in front of her face.  As we ate supper that night, we got her to talking about the “old days,” about when she grew up and the early years of her marriage, about the different work that she had done, and the children she had raised, about the dust bowl days and the depression years. 

It was all very interesting, and after supper, when we told her what we had done, my grandmother insisted on seeing herself on tape.  So we put it in the VCR player, put her chair right next to the TV, and watched her as she sat about two or three inches from the screen.

She had a lot of fun seeing herself, and we have had a lot of enjoyment, both from watching her watch herself and looking at the tapes ourselves through the years.

Try and preserve the memories of your family. They are priceless and will bring the past alive for future generations.

Throwback Thursday: Woman with Tennis Racket

Here's my caption:
"Aren't I the cutest?"

What's your caption? Feel free to leave it in the Comment Section below.

Memory Monday: Family Picture Gallery

 

OUR FAMILY PICTURE GALLERY

By the time we had our first child, we had been given a lot of family items (we had been married over nine years by then). On one wall of our baby’s room, we created a pictorial family tree.  In the center was a framed print of the birth announcement and the picture of our daughter, taken at the hospital after she was born (we changed the picture in that frame several times through the months as we had new ones made).  On one side of these was my baby picture, and next to that was my parents’ picture, and branching out from that were pictures of both set of my grandparents.  On the other side of our baby’s picture were my husband’s baby picture and his parents and grandparents.  When our daughter was older, we would go over and over the pictures with her, telling her who the people were. 

            Today, those pictures, along with others, like my father’s large oval baby picture, his father’s baby picture (in its original frame), my husband’s grandparents and great-grandparents wedding pictures, line our hall.  There is even a three-generation picture of my father-in-law, my husband, and our children, and a four-generation picture of my side of the family.  Whenever the kids have friends over, they like to show off our “family gallery”.

            I like being able to put a face with the name of those who have come before me.

Throwback Thursday: Two Children Sitting

Here's my caption:
"I've got him, Ma. Hurry and take the picture before he gets away again."

What's your caption? Feel free to leave it in the Comment Section below.

Memory Monday: Singing Hymns

My mother and one of her daughters (not sure which one)

SINGING HYMNS

I’ve always loved to sing hymns. My mother used to run her index finger under the words in the song book when I was little. I remember thinking as I bent my head over the songbook that I needed to learn to read so I could read the words for myself when I sang.

Funny how we grow up and do the same things we did as a child. For years, I kept my head bent over the song book and reading the words as I sang, even though I knew the words. I’d sing the wonderful familiar words and feel good inside, which in turn made me smile. Although I have to admit that all too often, the words to those songs were simply that—just words, because my mind and heart were on other things—what to fix for dinner, some irritation I hadn’t let go, what I needed to do tomorrow.

Then several years ago, I had a problem with my vision (OK, to be honest, I needed bi-focals and hadn’t gotten them). During this time, I couldn’t read the words in the song book. But you know, the funny thing about that was that I knew the words for all those songs anyway—I had sung them for years, so I didn’t keep by head bowed. Later, we got the big screens in the auditorium, so I didn’t have to look down to learn the new songs since they were in front of me.

Sometime after that, the thought of the Throne Room of God settled into my mind, and everything changed. As I was already looking upward (to see the screen in the front of the church auditorium) while we sang, I’d close my eyes and envision myself in the Throne Room of God, standing before the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in all Their glory, all Their majesty, all Their power with Their love flowing down from Them to me. A love, living and active, long before I was born. A love that took the Son from all this glory and majesty and brought Him to a stable that led to the cross. Around Them were the Heavenly host, singing and praising.

And as the congregation around me sang, I sang to God.

The worship service changed for me then. How can it not, when you stand before God, the Creator of the universe, the lover of my soul, while singing words like these, “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall always be, how marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior’s love for me.” How can I even think about what I’m fixing for Sunday dinner when I’m in that throne room singing “I know not why God’s wondrous love He to me He has made know, nor why unworthy Christ in love redeemed me for His own. But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I committed unto Him against that day?”

One of the other things I learned through all this was the joy of not only singing to God, but to others. When your eyes are looking down at the words of a songbook or forward to the words on a giant screen, you miss looking at those around you when you sing songs of encouragement, like A Common Love, They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love and Blest Be the Tie.

Yes, I love to sing. I love the joy, the introspection, the humility and the fellowship it brings into my life.

Thank You, God, for the gift of song and allowing us to sing to You and to those around us.

Throwback Thursday: Child Standing on Chair

Here's my caption:
"No! I'm the one!"

What's your caption? Feel free to leave it in the Comment Section below.

Memory Monday: The Proper Way to Sweep a Room

My grandparents' wedding picture

THE PROPER WAY TO SWEEP A ROOM

This is in the book from 1913 titled Things My Mother Used to Make. This book came out a little while after my grandparents married in 1910.

How to Properly Sweep a Room

Dust the furniture and put it in another room. Dust bric-a-brac and put on the bed if you are sweeping a sleeping room, if another room put them on the table, or in an adjoining room. Brush the draperies, take down and lay on the bed or table. Cover these and bric-a-brac with a sheet. Wet a newspaper, tear into small pieces and spread on the rug or carpet. Now you are ready for sweeping. If the floor is carpeted, sweep all dirt to the center of the room. Sweep the corners with a small whisk broom. Move every piece of furniture lest there be dirt left underneath. Open the windows before sweeping. When the dust is settled take a pail of warm water, put in a tablespoonful of ammonia, then with a clean cloth wrung from this, wipe the window glass, mirror and pictures; polish with dry cloth. Wipe all finger marks from doors and mop boards.

Now take a pail of clean water, with ammonia, and with a small scrubbing brush go over the rug or carpet, to remove dust and brighten the colors. Re­place furniture, bric-a-brac and draperies and your room will be sweet and clean. With care, once in two or three weeks, will be often enough to do this. p. 98.

            When I read this one, I had to stop and think for a minute. This isn’t the way I do things, not since I got married, not now. First of all, we don’t have bric-a-brac, so that part is out. Second, I read, somewhere years ago in some household hints, that if you put your shelves just above eye-level, there is no need to dust. I thought that made since and did it that way. Third, our newspaper comes digitally, so we have no newspapers to wet and put down on the carpets (to gather the dust there, I’m guessing).

 Fourth, we have a vacuum cleaner so I don’t sweep my carpets, and it has attachments that work for corners so there’s no need for that little whisk broom.  As far as moving all the furniture to get the dust underneath it, re-read the plan for putting shelves above eye-level—works for underneath big pieces of furniture as well—out of sight, doesn’t exist.  And for all that glass and mirrors, the stuff in the spray bottle works wonders.

By the way, I don’t worry about any of this stuff now anyway. When my husband retired several years ago, he said he would take over all the housework to give me time to write. Gotta love that man!