But What Will Our Descendants Find?

I love the time we live in now. The technology. The excitement. The innovations in so many areas - art, cooking, science.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS vs PORTRAIT STUDIOS

Part of my collection of Ambrotypes & Daguerreotypes

But I'm saddened when I think about our descendants. What will they find as they search for us? We don't go to portrait studios as our ancestors did. There will be very few formal photos of us in our Sunday best. No gorgeous leather bound photo albums full of studio photographs.

We use our cell phones or our iPads to take quick unposed photos of moments - the birth of a child, a wedding, a vacation, a graduation. But do we print those pictures or do they stay in digital format? If we don't print and preserve them in some way, what picture memories will our descendants find?

Letter from Levi Peer 1848

THE LOST ART OF LETTER WRITING

Think of our excitement when we find a letter written by an ancestor to a loved one. In my own research I stumbled on several letters written by my 2nd great grandfather to his mother in the early 1800s. I was also lucky enough to have a letter written by an ancestor in the mid 1600s turn up in letters rescued from ships, then translated and put online. But here's the question - how many hand written letters have you sent to family or friends in the past year? I've sent none. In fact I can go back many years and say I've sent no letters that could be preserved, tucked away in an attic or a closet and discovered by a descendant in the future.

SOME ADVANTAGES

Yes our descendants will have many advantages in genealogy that we don't have. Right now we're seeing records being digitized and made available to the public at a record pace. But imagine how much will be at our descendants' fingertips 100 years from now, even 25 years from now. But the loss will almost certainly be in getting a sense of who the ancestor was, who WE were as individuals who cry, mourn, love and feel joy. Letters, diaries, and photos put a layer on an individual that can't be known any other way.

MY GOAL

Photo Book created about my Fuller ancestors

 
Because overall I feel sad that most of us will leave very few candid or posed photographs, and very few hand-written letters, I began a personal project to create and publish photo books for my children and grand-children. It is my hope that some will survive and be passed on down through the generations.

Every year I also write and publish privately to share with my children, my memories of childhood, of my parents and grandparents. I also published a small guide with ideas on writing your memoirs and sharing your memories with family.

Sharing Family Stories and Memories: Prompts for Writing Your Memoirs for Future Generations
Available as an ebook on Amazon.com, paperback on Amazon.com, ebook on Amazon.ca or paperback on Amazon.ca

Are you doing anything to make sure your descendants will have some special items in the future? It's never too late to start.

Write Your Own Memories Before They are Forgotten!

It's important as genealogists that we not forget about writing our own story. Yes, we all want to find information on our ancestors and once we find it, most of us will put it in booklet form to share with other family members. But what about our own memories? We may think writing about ourselves is boring or egotistical but stop and think how excited you would be if you found a journal or memoirs that your great great grandmother kept!

My Chronological Life Story Got Confusing


I began my Life Story a few years ago. I started with my first memory and tried to keep my journal chronological. It was a matter of writing down my memories of each year of my life - or so I thought! That soon proved to be very difficult. I got confused - had I written about my mother falling on the ice her first time skating? Or my father dressing up as Santa then giving out the wrong presents? I simply could not recall what I had already written and what was a memory that had just surfaced.

Using Topics to Write My Life Story

So after months of mulling this over I decided on a new method of writing my own life story. This new method would keep me on track, and will help get rid of confusion - did I or didn't I already talk about an event. I'll decided to write my journal using various topics as a guideline. Topics such as "My first Christmas memory" "Family vacation" "Favorite Relative"

My goal was to write about my memories of the past - memories of my family (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and siblings), memories of special events, stories told by my parents or grandparents, my time at school, as a child, a teenager, an adult, newly married - in short it would be my life story but broken into events (topics) rather than chronological.  Using topics became so easy! I didn't have to worry about going year by year through my life, and forgetting what I'd already written!

After I worked out my topics I decided to share them with others who might be looking for some guidance - a gentle nudge - to get started. And so my book "Sharing Family Stories and Memories: Prompts for Writing Your Memoirs for Future Generations" was born. It's available as an ebook on Amazon.com, paperback on Amazon.com, ebook on Amazon.ca or paperback on Amazon.ca



Suggestions Before You Begin

* Buy a good book to keep your Life Memories in. I write in leather bound journals from Iona Handcrafted books, simply because I like how they feel and look important! They look like something that won't be tossed in the trash 50 years from now. That's important because I"m writing my memories for my descendants - children, grandchildren, great grandchildren not yet born. So I don't want to write in something that could easily be discarded in the future simply because it doesn't look worth saving

* Combine facts (where you went to school, names of teachers, where you lived) as well as emotions - happy and sad. Remember these are your memories so it's up to you to decide what you want to share. But don't overlook the sad moments too.

* Stay focused on the topic but jot down other memories that pop into your head as you are writing. You will be amazed at what memories surface as you are putting your thoughts down on paper. You can add those jot notes later when we get to a topic that fits.

* Don't type your memories - writing them by hand gives your descendants a sense of YOU - your style, your emotions. Handwriting is a reflection of our personality.

* choose a daily time period to write. If you can get in the habit of writing at the same time each day, you will find your journal writing flows more easily. Write early morning with your cup of tea or coffee. Write just as you are going bed or after supper when the children have gone to bed. Whatever is a good quiet time for you. I try to set aside 30 minutes each day. I don't always write for that 30 minutes, sometimes all I manage is 5 or 10! But that's okay.

Making Gift Books From Blog Posts

If you write a genealogy blog, you might want to have some fun with Blog2Print.com 

I spent 45 minutes last week at this site creating a small book featuring specific blog posts on my Sharing Memories meme.

This meme ran every Sunday for 5 years and featured sharing childhood memories in order to preserve them.

By telling Blog2Print to only gather blog posts from 2014 that had the keyword "Sharing Memories", a 40 page book was quickly and easily created. I will give these books to my children for birthday or Christmas gifts, and hopefully my grandchildren will enjoy them too.

Disclaimer: I do not have any affiliation with Blog2Print and they did not ask me to write this post, nor do I receive anything from them for it. 

Join the Baby Boomers Who Want to Share Their Stories and Memories

Yesterday I spotted an article online called Writing down family histories as Baby Boomers look back

I love anything that inspires us to write our own memoirs! As a baby boomer myself I began jotting down my memories of childhood several years ago. So many of my readers seemed interested but didn't know how to start! So I set up a monthly Sharing Memories blog post - where I provided a prompt such as "Grandma's Cooking", shared my own memories of the topic, and encouraged my readers to join in. 

This was intended to help genealogists overcome writer's block and get their own stories down permanently. You can see a few of the prompts on my Sharing Memories page

Now you can use my e-book Writing Your Memoirs For Descendants: Prompts for Recording & Preserving Your Family Stories and Memories  (with over 100 prompts) to guide you on your journey. You do not need a Kindle to read this book.
You can read it on the Amazon Kindle Cloud reader (free) or the Kindle App (also free)

Don't wait. By setting aside a few minutes each week you can preserve your childhood and family memories to pass on to your children and grand-children. 

Can you imagine how excited one of your descendants would be 100 years from now to read what you experienced, to learn about family members and events such as births, weddings and funerals? I know how thrilled I would be to find my great-grandmother's journal (or any ancestor's stories) 


 

Once in a Lifetime Family Reunion

Share the emotional reuniting of four generations (71 people) from one family that scattered across America. As families spread further and further apart, reunions are making a comeback to keep traditions and family histories alive. 

 

Evie & Clarence Wedding Day 1948
image courtesy of BrilliantBabyProducts.com

This 3^rd & 4^th of July, in Black Lake, Michigan, after 67 years of marriage, Great-Grandparents Evie & Clarence will gather their entire living family of 71 people from all over America and will finally see their 28 great-grandchildren in one room; meeting many for the first time.  

With family members ranging in age from newborn to 86 this will be a day full of laughs, tears How of joy and memories that will be passed down for generations.

 

This is all thanks to Barbara Klee of Pemberville, Ohio entering a contest to win a Once in a Lifetime Family Reunion, and winning! TinyBeans, the app that makes sharing memories with family safe and simple for over 700,000 people around the world, is honoring Barbara Klee’s family with a $10,000 reunion of a lifetime!

Free e-book for Father's Day! Help Dad Preserve His Stories

Why not gift your dad this free e-book for Father's Day? Ask him to follow the prompts and jot down his own memories of his childhood.

Writing Your Memoirs For Descendants: Prompts for Recording & Preserving Your Family Stories and Memories is free today only 

Choose either on Amazon.com at Writing Your Memoirs For Descendants: Prompts for Recording & Preserving Your Family Stories and Memories

or on Amazon.ca at Writing Your Memoirs For Descendants Prompts for Recording & Preserving Your Family Stories and Memories



Anybody can read Kindle books even without a Kindle device with the free Kindle app for smartphones, tablets, and computers.

Thanksgiving Traditions - Canadians Got the Date Right!

Do you remember your childhood Thanksgiving Days? What was the traditional Thanksgiving Day for you? What is it now? Has it changed very much? 

I don't remember anything special about Thanksgiving as a child except we got to eat Turkey with stuffing that my dad made. It was so good! There were four of us kids and only 2 drumsticks and we all wanted that prized piece of meat. 

We also got my mother's horrid mashed potatoes. Her version was to peel and boil potatoes then mash them roughly with a fork - no butter, no milk. They were dry as a bone and I used to smother mine with ketchup just to swallow them! 

Why am I talking about Thanksgiving? Because it is the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. Tomorrow I am cooking a traditional Thanksgiving meal for 15 people. That's a very small and nice number for me to manage! 

We are having Turkey with stuffing and gravy, Mashed potatoes (the real kind, not my mother's), Roasted Root Vegetables, Stir Fried Broccoli, Meatballs in Marinara Sauce, Macaroni & Cheese (the grandkids love this), Butternut Squash Soup, and Fresh Homemade Bread. I'm also including Spider Eggs for the grandkids - hardboiled eggs with cut up black olives on top to look like spiders. Dessert is an assortment - two kinds of pie which my guests are bringing, vanilla ice cream with chocolate and whip cream, and my homemade pumpkin bread.

What will you be doing this Thanksgiving?

Sharing Memories Good News

 

I'm excited to announce Sharing Memories prompts are now published in an ebook Writing Your Memoirs For Descendants: Prompts for Recording & Preserving Your Family Stories and Memories

Many new prompts have been added to this book. My weekly Sharing Memories prompts began in December 2009 and ended last week with a total of almost 200 prompts designed to jog memories of childhood experiences and stories. 

I encourage my readers who want to preserve family memories and stories to continue their weekly writing and recording. If we don't record our memories they will be lost within a few generations.

So why wait? Start recording your memories today!

P. S. this ebook can be read on the free Kindle App for smartphones or tablets or the free Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader.

Sharing Memories Week 35: Back to School

Here is a Challenge for all genealogy bloggers. Keep a weekly journal called Sharing Memories. Some of you may recall that in 2010, 2011 and 2012 I provided weekly prompts to help with recording our memories of ancestors and our own childhood.

If you missed this weekly series called Sharing Memories you might want to have a look and see if any of the prompts are helpful to you.

This week's prompt is Back to School

What was it like for you the week or weekend before school started up again after summer holidays? Did you get lots of cool notebooks, pencils and pencil crayons? Did your mom buy you that backpack you wanted?

We didn't have anything special for back-to-school like they have now. All I ever got was new binders, 3 ring lined paper and a few pencils and pens. But I was happy. Remember those little adhesive white rings with the hole in the middle that you put to reinforce your 3 ringed notepaper? I loved those silly things!

I was wishing I had some of them today when a Recipe binder I use lost its first page because the holes ripped from use.

Sharing Memories Week 34: School's out For Summer!

My son and his best friend

Here is a Challenge for all genealogy bloggers. I want you to keep a weekly journal called Sharing Memories. Some of you may recall that in 2010, 2011 and 2012 I provided weekly prompts to help with writing up memories of ancestors and ourselves. 

If you missed this weekly series called Sharing Memories you might want to have a look and see if any of the prompts appeal to you.

This week's prompt is School's out For Summer!

What did you do when school was over for the summer? As a young child did you go to Grandma's or summer camp or stay home with mom? As a teenager did you get a summer job? 

My mother worked so I stayed home with my older sister in charge. Then as a teen I worked all summer at our local library. 

Summers were fun as a kid. I hung around with my best friend Janie (who I met in Grade 3). We hiked out in the country, we sat in our rooms and shared confidences, we hunted for tadpoles in the local creek, and we embarked on dozens of adventures! We were inseparable and spent every day together. In fact Janie remained my very best friend until her death 2 years ago. 

If you have seen the movie Stand By Me, that was Janie and I and our adventures every summer. We shared many fun times exploring the woods, going where our parents had forbidden us to go. The old deserted house out in the country was one of our favourite scary places to hike to and explore. We saw signs of tramps having been there - old rusty cans of beans, spots where fires had been set inside the house, filthy bedding, etc.

On the rare times we weren't together, I went to the playground just down the road from our house and spent many happy hours on the swings, content with my dreams and ideas. 

Sharing Memories Week 33: Let's Visit Grandma!

Here is a Challenge for all genealogy bloggers. I want you to keep a weekly journal called Sharing Memories. Some of you may recall that in 2010, 2011 and 2012 I provided weekly prompts to help with writing up memories of ancestors and ourselves. 

If you missed this weekly series called Sharing Memories you might want to have a look and see if any of the prompts appeal to you. Many readers asked me to continue with the prompts this year so that is what I am going to do.

This week's prompt is Let's Visit Grandma!

Was visiting Grandma a favorite time for you? Did you get to see her very often? Which grandmother was it? What did you like best about the visit and was there anything you didn't like?

We went to Guelph Ontario about once a month to visit my Grandma McGinnis. I loved going although I hated the actual car ride as I got carsick every time. But I loved getting to see my cousins much more than Grandma. Grandma rarely spoke to us children. She wasn't unkind, she just didn't  talk to us except to say hello and ask how school was. 

We'd make the rounds to dad's brothers Joe and Roy. His other brother Clare lived with Grandma so that was two visits in one. I didn't like Grandma's house on Water Street - it smelled and the only bathroom was in the basement. Her basement scared me. It had a dirt floor and a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling. The bathroom was very small and the sink was stained and yellow. There wasn't a shower, and in fact I can't recall if there was even a bathtub! I've never quite gotten over my fear of basements and I make my husband go with me when I go to ours. it doesn't have a dirt floor but it still makes me anxious.

The one cool thing was that Grandma lived just a few houses down the street from John McCrae's house (author of In Flanders Fields). She lived there from the early 1900s so it is quite possible she knew him.

I never thought of this as a child but as an adult I have to wonder why we never visited my mother's mother. She lived in Guelph too but I don't remember us taking time to drop in on her. 

 

 

Sharing Memories Week 32 - Liar Liar Pants on Fire!

Join us for Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey We focus on memories of our parents, grandparents and others. We write for our children and grandchildren, that the memories are not lost over time. I hope you are keeping a journal, whether it is private or public, and joining us as we write our memoirs.

The prompt for this week (Week 32) is Liar Liar Pants on Fire!

Did you tell fibs as a child? Or were you always honest and truthful. Were your fibs little ones ("No Mommy I didn't eat that cookie.") or were they whoppers ("No Mommy I didn't cut sister's hair.")? 

I told a few fibs in my time. Some were whoppers. After saving up for a long time, my parents bought a stereo system. And one day I scratched my initials into the top. I was about 7 years old at the time. Why did I do it? I don't know, but I remember thinking how nice and shiny it was before getting my mother's tiny sewing machine screwdriver and going at it. 

When my parents spotted the shaky "L.M." scratched on top of their pride and joy, they obviously knew it was me but I accused my brother who had the same initials. However big brother was 9 years older than me so no way did Mom and Dad believe he did it. 

I outgrew the lying stage of childhood and in fact I can't even tell a social white lie because people can tell I'm not being honest! My husband says it's something to do with the look on my face. 

What about you? Do you remember telling fibs when you were a kid?

Sharing Memories Week 31: You're Grounded!

Join us for Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey We focus on memories of our parents, grandparents and others. We write for our children and grandchildren, that the memories are not lost over time. I hope you are keeping a journal, whether it is private or public, and joining us as we write our memoirs.

The prompt for this week (Week 31) is "You're Grounded!" 

Were you ever grounded as a child? Was that a consequence your parents used to discipline you or your siblings? What was the usual disciplinary action taken for breaking rules or other misbehaviour? Did you have to sit in a time-out? Were you sent to your room?

My parents were pretty easy-going. I don't remember ever being sent to my room, or grounded, and I  was never given a spanking. Or maybe I was just really well-behaved... no, that's not it. I do remember doing things that would be considered naughty - like playing hooky from school, like scratching my initials in the brand new stereo, like locking all the school bathroom doors and then lying about it, like sneaking a kitten into my room and hiding it in my closet for weeks (even though I knew my mom was allergic to cats). 

I just remember my parents talking to me about my behaviour, asking questions about why I'd done whatever I had done, and making it clear they weren't happy with me. 

As a teenager I never had a curfew. My father died when I was just barely 14 and after that my mother seemed to forget I was around most of the time. She pretty much let me fend for myself and do whatever I wanted to do. If I stayed out all night she never said a word. 

She never asked where I was going or who I was with. Being completely deaf in one ear, she would take out her hearing aid, go to bed with her good ear buried in the pillow and fall sound asleep. She never woke up when I came in at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. or whenever.

Believe it or not when my friends  complained about their parents being strict or having to rush home to make curfew, I often wished I had a parent who cared enough about my well-being to do that! I wished that when I came home at night my  mother would be wide awake, unable to sleep for worrying about me and not going to bed until she saw that I was safely home. But that never happened. 

Somehow I survived and didn't get into too much trouble which I think probably had something to do with my personality and the small village I lived in. Had I grown up in a city who knows what might have happened with me having unrestricted freedom from age 14 on.

Sharing Memories Week 30: Tattle Tales

Join us for Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey We focus on memories of our parents, grandparents and others. We write for our children and grandchildren, that the memories are not lost over time. I hope you are keeping a journal, whether it is private or public, and joining us as we write our memoirs.

The prompt for this week (Week 30) is Tattle Tales. What happened if you "told" on someone? If your sister hit you and you ran to Mom or Dad, what was the consequence? Record your stories before they are forgotten. As Judy G. Russell of the Legal Genealogist blog says, “Oral family history can be lost in three generations". This is your chance to record and preserve yours.

In my family we were not allowed to tattle. No matter what. My mother hated tattling and if you were foolish enough to run to tell on your brother or sister, *you* were the one who got in trouble. There was no line for "this is serious so it's okay to tell" and "this is a minor dispute". 

My older sister and I always did the dishes after supper, and she always took that opportunity to pinch and twist the skin on the inside of my elbow. It hurt like heck and I would cry.  My crying made my mother furious, I suppose because in her mind, it was pretty close to tattling on someone! 

She would refuse to listen if I tried to tell her what had happened. All she was concerned about was the noise and commotion in the kitchen. Since I was the one crying or yelling at my sister to stop, I was the one causing the problem in her eyes. 

My mother would yell out for me to stop all the noise. If that didn't work and she had to come into the kitchen, I was in trouble. The minute she'd leave, my sister would give what I considered an evil grin and immediately pinch and twist my skin again. I learned pretty fast to suffer the pain silently. 

And no, I did not carry on my mother's tradition with my own children! They could come to me with anything and I listened. I didn't always interfere as I wanted them to learn to handle their disputes if possible. But if there was hitting or pain involved, I put a stop to it. In my house the rule was "if you hit, you sit" meaning there was a time-out for anyone causing physical pain to someone else.

What was it like in your family? 

Sharing Memories Week 29: Chores- What Kid Loves 'Em?

"Housework" by AKARAKINGDOMS
FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Join us for Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey We focus on memories of our parents, grandparents and others. We write for our children and grandchildren, that the memories are not lost over time. I hope you are keeping a journal, whether it is private or public, and joining us as we write our memoirs.

The prompt for this week (Week 29) is Chores- What Kid Loves 'Em? 

Did your parents make you do chores as a kid? What jobs were yours? Did you get an allowance for doing jobs around the house? Did your Mom and Dad run the house in a traditional fashion with boys doing "boys' chores" and girls doing "girls' chores"? Mine did.

I had an older sister and two older brothers. We did chores based on traditional gender roles - my brothers took out garbage and mowed the lawn, while my sister and I set the table, did dishes, and so on. My sister had to do a lot more than I did - she was responsible from the age of 10 for looking after me in the mornings (I'm 5 years younger) and getting me ready for school. She also had to make sure my brothers and I got breakfast during the week. Mom made a huge pot of oatmeal on the weekend and it got reheated every morning on school days.

My sister also had to iron my dad's white work shirts, start supper before my parents got home from work, and help Mom with other jobs. Both my parents worked during an era when most moms were at home taking care of the kids and the household. 

We didn't get any money for these jobs, it was just expected of us. I don't remember having to do much more than set the table for supper, clear the table and dry dishes while my sister washed them. We fought constantly (but quietly) while doing chores together. 

When I was a bit older I helped with the laundry, mainly because I loved putting the wet clothes through the wringer! But I don't remember being told I had to do it. I don't think the work division was equitable in our home. It seems to me my sister was expected to take over the traditional housewife role as much as possible.

Mom wasn't big on housework and she did as little as possible, and didn't make us clean our rooms or make our beds. It wasn't like she did it for us, it just didn't get done. She didn't care if our rooms were messy and our beds unmade. It was great as a kid but as an adult both my sister and I quickly learned that we didn't really know how to clean a house! Sure we knew how to dust and run a quick vacuum but that was it. We had never learned the finer points of household cleanliness. But don't worry - if you come to visit me, I know now how to do a thorough cleaning! 

Sharing Memories Week 28: Family Vacations, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Join us for Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey We focus on memories of our parents, grandparents and others. We write for our children and grandchildren, that the memories are not lost over time. I hope you are keeping a journal, whether it is private or public, and joining us as we write our memoirs.

The prompt for this week is Family Vacations, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

What were your family holiday vacation times like? Where did you go? Did you enjoy them or hate them? What is your favorite memory of a great vacation you had as a kid. How about the worst vacation? 

We went camping some summers and I hated it. Algonquin Park is where many Ontario folks go, but for me it was a nightmare. I didn't like the outdoors - the bugs, the heat and the dirt. 

Our tent was a huge center pole tent that smelled of ... well... tent. It was damp all the time. And we had to use a metal bucket at night instead of going out to the outhouses. So guess what else the tent smelled of?

We had a little wooden rowboat that didn't look very safe to me even as a young kid. And I hated the water there because it was full of leeches! Ugh. I still remember my dad burning them off of our legs. 

Mom's cooking left a lot to be desired at the best of times, and outdoor cooking over an open fire didn't help. Bacon was burnt, eggs were crispy and brown and toast was black. 

Thinking it might make me happier, my dad stopped along the way one summer so I could ride a horse. From the look on my face in this photo I'm pretty sure I was terrified! 

Okay I admit, I'm not a camping kind of gal and wasn't as a kid either!

Sharing Memories Week 27: First Loss

Uncle Ern in front of his store Toronto Ontario

Join us for Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey We focus on memories of our parents, grandparents and others. We write for our children and grandchildren, that the memories are not lost over time. I hope you are keeping a journal, whether it is private or public, and joining us as we write our memoirs.

The prompt for this week is First Loss. 

We've all experienced it - the first passing of someone close to you. Yes it's devastating. It's hard to talk about sometimes. But it is part of our own journey through life and it's a lovely remembrance of someone you held dear. In my case it was one of my grandmother's brothers. The first death was such a shock to me. I was 11 years old and no one in the family had died so I had no experience with death. And at 11 you don't generally think about losing relatives or friends. 

But suddenly Uncle Ernie wasn't coming to visit anymore. I don't recall being told he was gone but it certainly impacted on our lives. He and his wife used to drive from Toronto to see us quite frequently. I remember him as such a jovial friendly man - somewhat short in stature but big in heart. 

This is one of my favourite photos of Uncle Ern. It was taken long before I was born and is a picture of the store he opened when he first came to Toronto from England. By the time I knew him this store no longer existed. I am lucky enough to have dozens of photos of Uncle Ern and his family and they span 60 plus years. 

Uncle Ern's passing was just the start of me learning how to say goodbye to family and to friends. There were several deaths in the space of the next 3 years - my father, my grandmother, more uncles and a school friend. But this sharing memory is about the first loss I experienced, and that was my very kind and good-hearted Uncle Ern.

What was yours?

Sharing Memories Week 26: Prom Night, Fun or Disaster?

Me at my sister's wedding
a year before Prom
Did I wear this dress??

Join us for Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey We focus on memories of our parents, grandparents and others. We write for our children and grandchildren, that the memories are not lost over time. I hope you are keeping a journal, whether it is private or public, and joining us as we write our memoirs.

The prompt for this week is Prom Night. Did you have a Prom at your High School? What was it like, what did you wear, who did you go with.... Tell us about your most memorable moment. 

We had a prom at my High School but I was between boyfriends and had no one to go with. So my brother-in-law took me! It was so much fun for a few different reasons. First, no one knew my brother-in-law and my classmates were so impressed that I was with this older guy from the big city. Second, he loved to dance and I don't think we sat down once. I wish I could remember what I wore but I've no idea. We didn't have much money so I can't imagine being able to buy a new dress. I wonder if I wore this mauve dress that I wore to my sister's wedding the year before?


I'd been to a prom before with my real city boyfriend before I was 16. He was older than me and I was only 15 when he graduated from Grade 12. That was intimidating actually because it was in "the city" at a huge High School. For any Torontonians reading this, it was at Earl Haig. There was a theme and the gym was beautifully decorated. Our small town school didn't have the resources to decorate like the city one did. I don't know if what I wore wasn't of great concern or interest to me but again I do not recall what I wore to that prom either. 

Sharing Memories Week 25: Summer Time Fun

Join us for Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey We focus on memories of our parents, grandparents and others. We write for our children and grandchildren, that the memories are not lost over time. I hope you are keeping a journal, whether it is private or public, and joining us as we write our memoirs.

The prompt for this week is Summer Time Fun. How did you spend your summers as a child? Did you go to summer camp? Did you stay with relatives or at home? 

My mother had a job (one of the few women in our village who worked outside the home) and my earliest memory is that I was at home with my older siblings. I don't recall much, if any, supervision, but I suppose there was some in my younger years. By the age of 9 or 10 I was spending most of the summer with my best friend Janie. 

We would go to the creek which was a good walk away, and try to catch tadpoles. We'd pack a bit of food and water and hike into the surrounding country, going as far as we could before exhaustion set in. I always used my dad's army canteen which didn't hold much water but was fun to carry.

When we were a bit older we set a goal of making it to a local Provincial Park but we never accomplished it. I checked today to see how far it was from our village to this park and it is 10 km. Google Maps estimates it would take 2 hours walking to reach it. No wonder we never made it! 

I use to wander around on my own, especially when I was younger. We had a little playground near my home and I used to go there and swing for hours. That was where I got my first bee sting. I was about 10 years old and went home and phoned my mom to ask what to do. I remember she said to make a paste of baking soda and put that on it.

For some reason I also liked to collect bugs and bees in my very young years, and would happily spend hours in our yard and the neighbours' yards with my jars for collecting. Considering how freaked I am now by bugs and bees it is kind of funny. 

Janie and I and a couple of other friends used to do a couple of things our parents had forbidden us to do - like walk over the railway trestle bridge and hang out at the deserted house on the outskirts of the village, which "hobos" were known to use. If you've seen the movie "Stand By Me" you have seen my childhood summers. 


Credit: "Young Child In Nature" by chrisroll on FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sharing Memories Week 24: Some of My Favourite Books

Join us for Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey We focus on memories of our parents, grandparents and others. We write for our children and grandchildren, that the memories are not lost over time. I hope you are keeping a journal, whether it is private or public, and joining us as we write our memoirs.

The prompt for this week is Some of My Favourite Books. What books did you read as a child or a teenager? Did you go to your local Library or did you read your parents' books? Maybe you bought books to savour and enjoy over and over?

I loved reading and could read before I went to Kindergarten. My mother was an avid reader and used to read while knitting in the evenings. We started going to the local Library at an early age and I was allowed to read any of the books my mom had on the bookcase at home. At a young age I was reading Frank Yerby's books which were adult romantic history novels. 

As a teen my favourite books were Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and Farley Mowat's The Dog Who Wouldn't Be. But I also devoured every Hardy Boys adventures I could get! I didn't like Nancy Drew as I found her adventures too tame and her character too weak. But I couldn't get enough of Joe and Frank. I guess I always was a bit more of a tomboy and I did love a good mystery to puzzle over.