As time goes by ...

[Big Man]

... To be remembered with love and to remember them with love, that's what it's all about ...

I try my best to tell my children and grandchildren about "their people" so that those family who have gone on before will always be remembered. I am thankful that people like my aunt cared enough to tell me about family from the past. My dad said just after my grandmother passed away (almost 30 years ago now), "as long as we remember her she will never really be gone."

 

[Shangas]

Hey Big Man,

Reading about this thread has been fascinating. I know how you must feel. My gran (who I've also mentioned on occasion here at the FL) is 97 this year. I learnt a lot about the Depression and WWII from her.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

My Grandmother Brown raised me for much of my younger years. Telling family stories of her parents..Grand parents..as well as my Grandfather's family. How he traveled by covered wagon from Wilksboro,NC to kansas. How she went to a one room school as a child...and named the names of her teachers,too. Not only that..but even discribed the personalities of much of 'the family'. I heard those stories so much..that I memorized them. Years later before she died..while I was in the Army..I wrote her a letter mentioning some of these stories including the little details(really a letter of love)..and sent it to the nursing home. She was there since she had a form of Alzheimers. To my surprise she wrote back..a very well put together letter like she had written it ten years ago. She was thrilled that I remembered!..and thrilled that I was her Grandson and still cared. I have that letter sent to Ft. Polk,La circa 1971 still tucked down behind her picture in the family album. Later a nurse at the nursing home told me that my Grandmother sat down and really tried hard to answer my letter.
I made it a point to tell those same stories to my children,too. They did mean alot to me.
HD

 

[LoveMyHats2]

We've been lucky to have some tin type photographs, and family members to pass down the history about the majority of who is in them.

Yes the older family members are like gems, rare and well loved, and very valued.

Thanks for starting this thread!

 

[Big Man]

... I have that letter sent to Ft. Polk, La circa 1971 still tucked down behind her picture in the family album ...

When I was in college my Grandmother (who was in her 90's at the time) wrote to me once a week. Those letters meant a lot to me then, but even more so now. I saved almost all of them. They were only short notes of one or two lines, but just knowing that she loved me enough to write to me meant everything.

 

[Big Man]

..as well as my Grandfather's family. How he traveled by covered wagon from Wilksboro,NC to kansas ...

Don't know how I missed this, but my great grandfather and great grandmother Brown traveled from Polk County, NC to Johnson County, Kansas in a wagon as well. They left NC in 1871 or 1872, and remained in Kansas until 1879 when they returned. According to a note written by my great grandfather, they traveled "in a two horse wagon and drove straight through for 45 days" on the trip home.

I wonder if there is any connection to these two families?

 

[skyvue]

My great-grandmother traveled from Illinois to Oklahoma in a covered wagon in her early teens, and she lived to see men on the moon. As was expressed above, what an amazing amount of history she witnessed.

I was a little intimidated by her when I was young, dang it (plus I was just a kid) so I never asked her to talk about her life. I'd give both my pinkies to have just an hour to converse with her today.

 

[Shangas]

Don't feel bad, Sky.

My second-cousin, Timothy (I think he's about 12 now?), was taken to visit my grandmother a few years back, when she was still up and kicking. She was 95 or thereabouts. Gran ADORES children (first-hand experience, here ), but Timothy was terrified of her! He wouldn't go near her, even though granny would never hurt a fly.

I think in the future, he too, might feel some sort of guilt at not spending any time with his great-grandmother.

Now how many people can say they had, and knew, one of those rare, limited editions, eh?

 

[stevew443]

I love reading stories like the ones here. My father's mother was born in 1893 and lived until 1987. I got to know her quite well. She would tell me stories of her grandfather, who she knew very well. He was born in 1812 and lived to be 99 years old, so it seemed almost like I had a direct link back to 1812. My father's father was born in 1879 and lived to be 90 years old. Not only did he tell me many interesting stories of his youth, I got to work with many of his co-workers shortly after he died. Granddad was an oil well driller, and I worked on gas wells in the same area of the country. Many of the very young men who worked with my granddad were still working in the business when I worked the wells in the early 70s, so they would tell me some of the interesting things that granddad left out when relating stories to me.