Ok... enough bad yucky posts... bleach...
I have to tell you all what I got in the mail on Friday. It's a book (well.. Office-Max-Put-Together-Spiral-Bound-Thingy) that my mom's cousins put together. It is the stories of my great-grandfather & grandmother and their kids, their kid's kids, and their kid's kid's kids.
I'm a genealogy NERD!!!!! I LOVE it, and this book... ACK!!! It's got pictures and family trees and stories. Did you know that Essie is named after my Great-Great-Grandmother? And there's a PICTURE of her in the book.... I'll be honest... she's an ugly woman but... that's okay!
There's a picture of my Grandma's family taken when she was about 7 or so. She had 13 brothers and sister:
Ernie, Esther, Arthur, Raymond, Donald, Gordon, Amy, Iva, Elsie, Roger, Lorna, John & Dick. They're all in the picture along with their parents. The first time I saw the picture, I was about 7, and I told my grandma I didn't remember taking that picture, pointing at HER in the picture. Yep... dead ringer for dear old gram!!!
There's stories in the book about one of her brothers who was a pilot in WWII who was at the Normandy Invasion. There's a story about my Grandma & Grandpa's wedding day, when the whole family sat and sang songs together til 3 am! In fact, it was so much fun that Grandma & Grandpa left around 9 pm for their wedding night, but my Grandpa was having so much fun that they turned around and went back!
There's painful stories. A car accident that claimed the life of a brother... family scuttlebutt goes back and forth as to whether there was alcohol involved. Babies dying in infancy. Daughters born with "minds that weren't quite right". Wonderful pillars of the family taken from us before we were ready for them to go.
There's the pain of missing pages - one brother who moved to California and all but disappeared.
There's discovery. I grew up 12 miles from cousins I didn't know about. I have the same birthday as a cousin born in 1957.
I read the book from cover to cover this weekend. Soaking in the tales of the people who are mine. Looking at the pictures, and realizing that we, as a family, can be broken down into the fat heads and the skinny heads. The skinny heads are dark complexioned with narrow frames - that came from my great-Grandfather. The fat heads are fairer skinned, solid people - that is straight from my great-Grandmother (Yes, I am a fat head)
And then it hit me... somewhere between the tales of Amy, the Pie-Lady of Charles City, Iowa, and Iva, who moved about a billion times following her charlatan of a husband around the Midwest... that this is what my blog is. My contribution to the furthering of the story. My way for my girls and their girls (and boys) and their girls (and boys) to know what I thought and what I did and what the world was like. And who I am. And I found it very compelling to be open and honest, and.. raw.. in my blog. To not hide behind a mask of what I think people want to hear or what will get the most comments. This is my way to leave my little mark on a great big world....
My fat head mark on the world.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
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24 comments:
That is sooo cool! You will definitely be leaving your mark, Lizzie Lou!
THAT is a wonderful gift. Wow. Sounds like a lot of great stories there.
I have often wished to have something like this. Guess I should get busy. What a great gift.
Am just home from my trip and wanted to leave my condolences for your losing the Election. I certainly was pulling for you. Maybe in four years they will be ready for a Lizzie for Pres.
I guess what they say is true...the best gift to give (and receive) is the gift of self.
You were gifted with the gift of your grandmother's self, and each day you gift us (and your girls) the gift of your self.
Thank you the mid week uplift.
That is so cool!! What a neat book to have. Those are the kinds of stories that get forgotten with time, it is so neat to have them documented.
PS. I LOVED your drawings and story about meeting Lulu, Kat & the other bloggy friends!
That book sounds so cool!!!!
I feel the same way about my blog. I love it!!!
That Gift rocks. And so do you my little pumpkin.
Omgosh. Yes. I love it too! We had a family reunion about two years ago and I got a cool book. Plus, the STORIES! My great great great grandfather was a gangsta in "a Texas town" and once owned almost all of "this" city. He had a business partner and so the story goes...there was a disagreement and his partner was found floating in the river!
Have any gay/lesbi stories? We had one of those too, in the early 1900s. The shame back then.
Genealogy is a powerful thing! I keep a journal that I write stories in about my life. Painful, honest, raw...about love and hurt and crazy family dysfunctin. But I love it and it's all me. Of course it will be given when they are old enough to understand it..and not use it as a weapon. hehe
Anyway I think it is amazing and you must feel so much closer to your family! It's wonderful! The funny thing is, I never thought you weren't real or honest :) If you are unleashing the beast, I think we are in a for a treat! haha!
What a special gift!!
I am always in awe looking at my family tree- and those are just dates and names- I can't imagine a story to accompany them all!!
that is really cool.
Genealogy ROCKS! You are giving your girls the best gift ever.... YOU!
Wow, that is just an awesome, awesome book. You are so lucky!
And, the reason everyone looked kinda fugly in the olden days was because they had to freeze and stay absolutely still for like FIVE minutes in order to get the picture made. Seriously. That's why no one ever smiles - can you imagine holding a happy, pleasant expression on your face for that long? Try to hold a smile for one solid minute - I guarantee you after 60 seconds, your cheeks will hurt (even if you smile as much as I do normally)....
So, I'm just sayin', they probably were all much better looking in person, LOL!
:D
It is so awesome that your family put that book together! I view my blog the same way--that's also why I put my "week in review" posts for this year in a scrapbook.
And now I'm singing Legacy by Nichole Nordeman.
"I wanna leave a legacy how will they remember me? Will I choose to love, will I point to you..."
Fat Head. That makes me laugh.
Love this post! You are leaving your mark and I'm a geneology nerd too. Whne my dear grandfather died he left behind 50 years worth of journels. He started writing when he met my grandmother and didn't stop until the night before he died of a heart attack. I cherish those memories and love looking into his soul and seeing what he was like. It's fascinating! By the way...thank you for your kind words on my blog...they meant a lot!
That was an awesome post!! I am glad that you have so much history in your midst to give you inspiration to make more for your children:-)
Your head is perfect and all that is in it!
Make sure you print them out and bind them in a book!
VERY cool. I'd like to have one of those for my family. I know a little bit, but not much. I've got Irish and French blood on my mom's side, and Welsh and German from my dad's... so you know there's gotta be some interesting stories!
You most defnitely will leave your mark my friend..."Fat Head" and all ;)
They say that history is written by the winners. And that is all changing. Because now history will be written by fat headed mommy bloggers. And all those others that are too busy and just don't get it...their stories will be lost to history.
And guess what? I am finally caught up. Don't write for a while, kay? ;-)
That is such an awesome book to receive. Sadly I don't know much about generations of family before me and that makes me sad.
BTW, I love your fathead mark!
what an awesome thing to pass down to your kids.
when i was about 14, i got to go through a ton of old pictures my grandpa had of relatives WAY before my time. my mom took me to get them all photocopied. i organized them into little books by date and which branch of the family tree they were, labeled them and created family group charts. i made a couple copies, one for my mom, one for my aunt, and one for my uncle. it was an awesome experience--i learned so much about them while doing it.
someday when i (hopefully!) get to heaven, i think i'll recognize them. i've always thought that would be so cool.
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