Another Prompt For Writing Your Life Story

Last year a Meme hit Twitter called #FirstSevenJobs  As the hashtag suggests, folks posted a list of the first seven jobs they held. That made me think about what a great prompt that is for writing the stories of our lives. I already have a prompt about talking about your first job in my book "Sharing Family Stories and Memories: Prompts for Writing Your Memoirs for Future Generations" but making a list of all your paying jobs is a great addition.

Of course, with each job listed you would write a description of what year(s) you worked at that job, what you did, how much you made (if you remember), where it was, what your boss was like, whether you loved or hated it, and any other details you can remember.

To show what I mean, here is my list of all of my paying jobs - 18 of them, starting from age 14 with babysitting jobs. I would have included being a homemaker but I didn't get paid for that. I haven't included a description of them but in my personal journal of my life story I will. Why not try your hand at this? Here's mine:

1. Babysitting
2. Working as a page in the local Library
3. Waitress at a Lodge near Huntsville Ontario
4. Vending Machine company sorting and rolling coins
5. Assistant to Chief Accountant in Canada-wide Banking & Mortgage Company
6. IBM Keypunch Operator
7. Creating surveys for Survey Marketing company
8. Library Assistant
9. Nursery School Aide
10. Dental Office Receptionist
11. Bookkeeper in Ophthalmologist office
12. Child Care Worker Kinark Child and Family Care Services
13. Teacher Assistant
14. Teacher in Special Education
15. Math Tutor
16. Self-employed Genealogist
17. Affiliate Marketer
18. Author

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. 

Five Days of Family Photo Stories: Miss Mulligan's Girls

Recently Gail Dever wrote about a very cool idea on her blog. Her post is called Writing about your life — and your ancestors’ lives — in five photos She inspired me to follow suit in a blog meme called Five Days of Famiiy Stories 

Just choose 5 photos that you love from your collection of shoeboxes and albums. Feature one each day on your blog or in your personal journal. Tell the story of the photo - where was it taken, who is in it, who took it, what year was it taken, what emotion does it invoke when you look at it, etc. 

 

This is my last photo in this series

This is a photo of my beloved grandmother, Ruth Simpson, in Miss Mulligan's Girls, in the Ellington School in Ramsgate Kent England. It was taken circa 1902 when she was 8 years old. Grandma is the young girl in the middle of the back row.

I am lucky enough to have a few photos of Grandma in the dance group in other years. What surprises me is that she never mentioned this to me. Yet she was the story-teller.

As I a little girl I would listen, fascinated, to her stories of her childhood, of her parents and grandparents, and of leaving England for Canada at the age of 19.  

These photos came to me a few years ago from her youngest daughter, my 93 year old aunt.

Five Days of Family Photo Stories: 5 Sisters in Hats

My friend and fellow blogger Gail Dever wrote about a very cool idea on her blog. Her post is called Writing about your life — and your ancestors’ lives — in five photos

She inspired me to follow suit in a blog meme called Five Days of Family Photo Stories.

Just choose 5 photos that you love from your collection of shoeboxes and albums. Feature one each day on your blog or in your personal journal. Tell the story of the photo - where was it taken, who is in it, who took it, what year was it taken, what emotion does it invoke when you look at it, etc.

Here is my photo and story for today:

 

Cabinet Card taken ca 1905 St. Mary's Ontario Canada

This photograph is of four Purdue sisters - Margaret born 1875, Louise born 1881, Nellie born 1882 and Carolyn 1877. The sisters were milliners in Toronto Ontario, and these wonderful hats are their own creations.

I love the variations they created with two very flamboyant hats in the back, one on the right front much more restrained, and on the left front, one very simple hat. I've often wondered - do the different styles reflect their different personalities or was it simply due to inexperience versus experience in hat making! 

All in all this is one of my favorite photos. 

The gal standing on the right strikes a casual yet cocky pose with her arm resting on the chair and her head tilted slightly. She seems to be saying "Okay world, here I am. What are you going to do with me!" I find it significant that her hat is the most flamboyant. I suspect she was a very confident young lady. 

By contrast the sister seated on the left seems to almost disappear. She is rigid, her body seems so very tiny and insignificant. That simple and tiny hat on her head also adds to the idea that she may have been shy and timid.

 

Five Days of Family Photo Stories: Ribbons and Bows

Recently Gail Dever wrote about a very cool idea on her blog. Her post is called Writing about your life — and your ancestors’ lives — in five photos

She inspired me to follow suit in a blog meme called Five Days of Family Photo Stories.

Just choose 5 photos that you love from your collection of shoeboxes and albums. Feature one each day on your blog or in your personal journal. Tell the story of the photo - where was it taken, who is in it, who took it, what year was it taken, what emotion does it invoke when you look at it, etc. 

This photo was taken in a studio in Guelph Ontario in 1923. Just look at the bows in my mother and aunt's hair! How on earth did my Grandmother find the time to make them look so sweet? And the ringlets are amazing. I wonder if they had electric curling irons back then or did Grandma have to heat the irons on the stovetop?

I wonder if Grandpa Fuller helped out or did he make himself scarce while Grandma was getting her three daughters ready for this photo? Grandma could get pretty stressed out so I suspect she was a tad irritable during the process. No doubt my mother had strenuous objections to being all dolled up and having her hair put in curls! Mother is the middle daughter sitting down and she's 7 years old in this picture.

Although photographers often had standing subjects pose with their hands on the person seated in front, I'm thinking that older sister Lily's hands on my mom's shoulders were to make sure my mother stayed in her seat!  

Do you think Grandpa took them all out for ice cream afterwards? I hope so but knowing Grandma I doubt it. No doubt she would not want their dresses to get messy. Maybe they got to go home and change. I imagine Grandma had a headache and would want to lie down so it's very possible Grandpa took Lily and my mom out for a treat. I never knew him but according to his daughters he was pretty laid back and easy-going. 

Do your ancestors have a story to tell? Maybe it's time to give them a voice through a photo.

A Suitcase of Memories: Eastern Star Banquet 1944

This is the suitcase that was given to my husband last week. It came from his great-aunt Florence Elgie's home after her death.


We removed the items carefully (see below) and started sorting them. There were many school exercise books, dozens of songs written by Florence's father William Elgie, and other miscellaneous items. 



The first one we are featuring is a small booklet for St. Marys Chapter No. 121 Order of the Eastern Star Banquet.


The Banquet was in honour of Sister Sparling D.D.G.M. and was held on Friday October 27, 1944 in Knox Church in St. Mary's. Inside is a list of names of Officers which may be of interest to any descendants.

The name Mrs. Florence Hooper, Warder is Florence Elgie, owner of the suitcase.









Here are the names:

Miss Helen Grieve
Mr. George Muma
Mrs. Irene McTaggart
Mr. Archie Montgomery
Mrs. Annie Stanley 
Miss Hattie Mayler
Miss Roberta Sparling
Mrs. Annie Bragg
Mrs. Lena Muma
Mrs. Aileen Marriott
Mrs. Linda Parsons
Miss Mary Forrest
Mrs. Marjorie Butters
Mrs. Florence Willard
Mrs. Lottie Hall
Mrs. Gertrude Egan
Mrs. Florence Hooper
Mr. Herbert Sparling

Five Days of Family Photo Stories: An Engagement Outing

Recently Gail Dever wrote about a very cool idea on her blog. Her post is called Writing about your life — and your ancestors’ lives — in five photos

She inspired me to follow suit in a blog meme called Five Days of Family Photo Stories.

Just choose 5 photos that you love from your collection of shoeboxes and albums. Feature one each day on your blog or in your personal journal. Tell the story of the photo - where was it taken, who is in it, who took it, what year was it taken, what emotion does it invoke when you look at it, etc.

 

This is a photo of my mother and father, probably in the spring or summer of 1935. They aren't married yet and Dad is giving Mother a lovely bouquet of flowers. Look at her happy face! Mother rarely smiled or laughed as a parent, and this picture lets me know that she once had a life that made her happy. Dad looks like he's hamming it up! Dad was 23 years old and Mother was 19 in 1935. I love seeing them so young and obviously in love.

Standing next to my father is my Grandfather (Mother's dad). It looks like he's pinning  a flower on Uncle Joe's sweater and Uncle Joe looks pleased as can be. Uncle Joe was Dad's younger brother and he would have been 10 years old. The young girl on the far right is my mother's youngest sister Eileen. Auntie "I" as we call her, was 12 years old that year. I think how nice it is that the two families have gone on a picnic or an outing together. 

I bet Mom and Dad are newly engaged and the families are getting to know each other. I think my Grandmother (Mother's mother) must have taken the picture and even that is hard to imagine! But she is missing from the picture and should have been there if the families were on an outing. 

My Auntie "I" is the only person in that photo who is still alive and that makes me ponder life so this is my thinking photograph. There they all are - young and happy and enjoying the day, but time moves on, and as it must, it extracts its toll and ends for all of us. The poignancy of this moment, frozen forever in a snapshot, says so much more than it appears on first glance.  

It reminds me to embrace every moment with as much joy as possible for life is fragile and fleeting. This quote springs to mind:

"Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” ― Omar Khayyám, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

A Suitcase of Memories: The Start of a Journey

Last night my husband came home from visiting his parents with a small suitcase. Inside are papers, documents, school notebooks, letters and who knows what else! 

We have not done anything more than open the case. What you see on the left is the top layer.

We had a quick look in the Note Book and it is full of school essays written by Florence Elgie when she was a young girl.

Ann, Luella & Florence Elgie

Florence was the sister of my husband's grandmother. She was born in 1914 in St. Mary's Ontario and lived her entire life there, dying in 1996.  Florence married Wilbert George "Wib" Hooper (1913 - 1993). The Hooper family was fairly well known in St. Mary's as the owners of Hooper's Dairy. 

George and Florence had no children so her papers were passed down to her niece and now to my husband. 

William Elgie 1876-1946

We are excited about seeing what memories this little suitcase holds. We have been told that one of its treasures are original songs written by my husband's great-grandfather William Elgie.

Five Days of Family Photo Stories: Two Little Girls in 1917

Recently Gail Dever wrote about a very cool idea on her blog. Her post is called Writing about your life — and your ancestors’ lives — in five photos

She inspired me to follow suit in a blog meme called Five Days of Family Photo Stories.

Just choose 5 photos that you love from your collection of shoeboxes and albums. Feature one each day on your blog or in your personal journal. Tell the story of the photo - where was it taken, who is in it, who took it, what year was it taken, what emotion does it invoke when you look at it, etc.

I'm going to start with this photo - one of my favourites for several reasons. It is a studio photo and was taken in Guelph Ontario in 1917.

My mother Joan sits on the left holding a large stuffed cat. Her older sister Lillian looks quite frightened and is clutching a doll in one hand and pulling at the hem of her dress in the other. It's a familiar habit isn't it? Children who are nervous or shy will often pull at their clothing when faced with something that causes that emotion in them.

I love the looks on their faces - so somber. I can just imagine my Grandmother Ruth dressing them that day. What an ordeal it must have been to iron those dresses and try to keep the girls clean until they reached the photography studio! But Grandma always dressed herself and her girls beautifully.

Joan's hair is neatly parted and slicked to the side. I can picture Grandma wetting a finger with spit and slicking that hair down.  It looks like she even managed to curl Lily's hair! I can't imagine trying to get a 3 year old to sit still long enough.

This photo makes me smile. It's also humorous in some ways because my mother was allergic to cats so seeing her hold a stuffed on strikes me as ironic. I wonder if the cat and doll were the studio's toys or Joan and Lily's favourite toys at home? I'll never know. 
 
Both my mother and aunt are gone now. I can't share this photo with them anymore. But I can share it with others in my family and perhaps they too will smile when they see it. 

20 Reasons Why You Should Write Your Family History

Recently I spotted an article in a friend's Facebook feed. It was published in February of this year on the New York Public Library's website. It's called 20 Reasons Why You Should Write Your Family History and I encourage my readers to have a look at it.  

The reason I like best, and the same reason I have been saying for years now is this one: 

"You are an important person. You have things to pass on, to your children, to your local history society, to unknown future generations"

That reason was the basis of my weekly Meme called Sharing Memories which I started in 2009. 

 Over  100 Sharing Memories prompts have now been published in an ebook Writing Your Memoirs For Descendants: Prompts for Recording & Preserving Your Family Stories and Memories

PS You do not need a Kindle to read an ebook. Amazon has the free Kindle App. Download the app then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

 

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. 

 

 

New E-Book Writing Your Memoirs For Descendants

We all love to find a journal or diary or  a letter written by a great-great-grandfather or grandmother or another ancestor.  But we often forget that our own stories will be just as exciting to our children and grandchildren. It's  important for us to record our own memories and write our own journals to pass on to our descendants.

I'm very excited to let everyone know that I have written an E-Book  called Writing Your Memoirs For Descendants: Prompts for Recording & Preserving Your Family Stories and Memories available on Amazon.com for only $2.99

My 54 page E-Book provides almost 150 prompts and suggestions for guiding  you  as you record your childhood memories and stories. Each prompt has several questions designed to jog your memory of events. It also contains suggestions for publishing your journals to share with family members.

For those who have been following my Sharing Memories blog posts, you will be happy to know that my E-Book has new prompts organized by categories. For example one category is Firsts (first Kiss, first Dance, first airplane ride, first birth in family, first car, first death in family, first wedding in family, etc. )

Did you know that if family stories are not recorded and preserved, they will be lost within 3 generations? Don't let that happen to your precious family memories!

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!