There are things about your family that only you know. There are stories your parents told you that no one else will know if you don't share them. Some day your children or grandchildren may want to know those stories. None of us know how long we will live, so now is the time to share those stories. This blog will give you ideas to help you with sharing those stories.
The fall of the year has always been a busy time for me. Growing a garden and then trying to preserve the produce from that garden takes a lot of time. It is especially challenging when the temperature drops 30 degrees in one day. All of a sudden tomatoes, grapes, and squash are in danger of freezing. So, my plans change and I'm picking green tomatoes and grapes and the squash that are big enough to eat until it is dark. Then I covered the remaining plants and hope they make it through the frost. Next week will be warm again. But now the grapes need to be made into juice or jam. The tomatoes should be spread out so they will ripen. I should make some zuchinni bread with some of the squash. Every year the harvest is challenging. There is a lot of extra work to do in a very short period of time. Growing up I remember helping my mother as she canned peaches and apricots and pears. She made jams and butters from the fruit. She canned tomatoes, green beans and squash. She even made green tomato preserves when a frost came too soon for the tomatoes to ripen. What kinds of things do you remember from the harvest times in your life? Did you enjoy fresh picked fruits and vegetables? Did you help can, dry or freeze fruits or vegetables for the winter? Did snow and cold come suddenly or gradually? Did you welcome the cooler weather or did you hate to see summer go? Record in your life story the things about harvest time that you remember. Maybe you could even include a recipe for jam or jelly you made that was especially good. Write about the feelings you had during this busy time of year.
When writing your story, sometimes it helps to have something to trigger your memories. Knowing what happened in the world during certain years can give you perspective on what happened in your family. For instance, my father did not go on to high school. When I look at the time frame, it was in the middle of the Depression. The closest high school was fifteen miles away. He probably would have had to board in the town where the high school was. Money was probably an issue, and so he choose to stay and help out his sister and brother-in-law with their farm instead of going on to high school. Later in his life he wished he had gotten more education, but he accomplished a lot in his life despite the lack of education. He built the home we grew up in, putting in all the electrical and plumbing himself. He repaired his own cars, trucks and farm equipment. He built chicken coops and corrals and a granary. By looking at what was going on in the world, I can understand better why my dad didn't go on to high school. There are many events that affect our lives, so it is helpful to look at what was going on in the world at the time. Using a tool such as Personal Historian Software can make writing a family's story much easier. A free trial is available if you want to try it out.
Today I attended a graveside service for a friend who had passed away. Her son-in-law read her obituary. She had written it herself. She wanted certain things to be remembered, so she wrote them down. What would you want included in your obituary? Perhaps taking time to write them down would help your family. Her son-in-law said it was very nice to find this brief summary of her life already written down. What things do you want people to remember most about you? What were the things that you felt were your greatest accomplishments? What do you want your grandchildren and great grandchildren to know about you? Even though you probably won't die tomorrow, this could be a very valuable thing to do. You may re-evaluate what you have done in your life. Perhaps there are things that you really want to do yet. You may be able to make some changes in your life so your obituary will be what you want it to be. Hopefully you can make some very positive changes in your obituary every time you review it.
It seems that every year school starts again sooner and sooner. Summer flies by. As a child I looked forward to going back to school in a lot of ways, but I was always nervous. I usually didn't sleep well the night before the first day. I would have nightmares that I overslept and missed the bus or that I got lost and couldn't find where my classes were. In elementary school I would be afraid to climb up the slide and slide down it or to climb on the jungle gym for the first few days, but gradually I would begin to lose my fear as I kept on trying. Now in my life it is sending my kids off to college and helping with deciding on classes, finding jobs and other more grownup needs. What do you remember about going back to school? Were you excited or were you scared? Did your first day go well or did you forget something you needed or did you get lost? Write down what you remember about going back to school. It may be just the thing one of your grandchildren may need to hear.
It seems to me that the years go by faster and faster. Another birthday just passed a few days ago for me. It seemed I hardly had time to think about it. I had a couple of friends ask for help with cleaning out some things from their homes so they had things better organized. We spent some time doing that. Our church held a clothing share and we helped sort, organize and display clothing. One of the businesses I work for held a Back-to-School Fashion Show, and we spent time helping prepare for and helping with the Fashion Show over and above my usual work hours. I have felt like time has just flown by. I haven't even had time to think about writing for this blog. Does life ever seem that way to you? Some times just stopping to write down what has been happening can help. By writing down what you have done, you can see how much you have accomplished even though you weren't able to do everything you wanted to do. As each birthday passes by we are reminded of how short life really is. Taking time to write down what we have done can give us a realistic perspective on our lives.
What kind of summer activities do you remember? When you were a child, did you go on picnics? What kind of food did you eat? I remember a picnic lunch where our mother made sandwiches and eggnog for my brother and I, and we sat on cinder blocks under the apple tree in the backyard to eat our lunch.
Did you go to a park or a playground to play? I lived on a farm growing up, and we didn't have a park in our town. But when raising my children, we've always lived close to a park or a playground?
Did you lay on your back and watch the clouds go by? We didn't have much of a lawn for most of my childhood, so I didn't lay on my back; but I did like to watch the clouds go by and especially watch the sun rise and set.
Did you go swimming in a lake or a pool? I never learned how to swim. I went with others to a swimming pool twice. The second time I cut my toe and couldn't stand to have my toe in the water. I sat on the side of the pool and got sunburned. I didn't go to a swimming pool again.
Did you have air conditioning or even a fan? We never had air conditioning or even a fan when I was young. We had a basement which was much cooler in our house. We slept there until I was about ten years old. My dad built onto our house and we moved our bedrooms upstairs. For two to three weeks in the summer it would be uncomfortable sleeping. We opened windows and doors for cross ventilation and hoped a breeze would be blowing. I still remember as a teenager the first time some one brought a fan to our Sunday evening meeting at the church. It was so nice to sit where the fan could blow on you.
Simple everyday things add a great deal to your story of your life. Since your children and grandchildren have a different experience in life, it is important to record even the simple things that happened in your life, even whether you had air conditioning or not.
Today is Independence Day. It's a good day to remember the Independence Day celebrations in your life. As a child what did your family do on Independence Day. I never saw fireworks until I was in high school, but every year our little town of 300 people had its own Fourth of July celebration. It started with a parade. Any one in town who wanted to be in the parade could be. You could decorate your car or truck or trailer or wagon. You could decorate your trike, bike, little red wagon or you could just walk waving a flag as you went. There usually wasn't a band, but one year when I was in high school all the band members decided to march in our town's parade. We had more than a dozen members and the band was a real addition to the parade. Usually after the parade there was a program commemorating the founders of our country. We would pledge allegiance to the flag and sing the Star Spangled Banner and other patriotic songs. In the afternoon would be races on the school lawn. It seemed I always came in last in my age group's race. Softball and baseball games were played in the afternoon. I still remember the year someone hit a baseball and broke the windshield of our car. We didn't park so close to the field after that. Sometimes a rodeo would be held in the evening. As I raised my children we lived in a city. A parade was held on July Fourth in our neighborhood, so we would go to watch the parade. There were a few carnival rides set up at the park a couple of blocks from us, so we would go to the carnival and then in the evening at the park there would be fireworks set off, so we would go to watch them. Then we moved to a small town in western Nevada. Here there was a big celebration for Armed Forces Day, but nothing was done on the Fourth of July. If you wanted to celebrate the Fourth of July with a parade or fireworks, you had to travel at least 50 miles or more. The past few years efforts have been made to have something here for an Independence Day celebration. It was found that fireworks could be purchased cheaply if arranged with a company that had set off fireworks in another city or town to do a fireworks display on July 5th on their way back. So now we could travel elsewhere for a celebration on the 4th or we can camp or picnic close to home and then on the 5th we can watch fireworks. Maybe our way of celebrating the Fourth of July isn't really interesting to you, but the way you celebrate the Fourth of July may be very interesting to your grandchildren and great grandchildren. It can be another important part of you story.
