After taking off most of July and August from blogging, it is time to get back at it. I'll start back up with this post and will make it a fairly short one. As a fairly new grandparent (3 grand daughters age 4 and twin 20 month old), I want to leave some great memories with them and stories they can share with their kids and grandkids about Nana and Pawpaw. I cherish our current relationships with them that makes them light up and get excited when they see us. I cherish them running into our arms for hugs and to sitting in our laps. This makes me think about my own memories of my grandparents.
I never knew my mother's dad. He was killed by his own daughter, my aunt, before I knew him. I did know my mother's mother fairly well. For those who remember from a previous post, this is Little Grandma to me. I remember her as a petite and spunky grandma. She lived with one of my aunts and in an apartment the entire time I knew her. She had enough money to get by, but not a lot of money for extras. Yet, one of my memories of her is that she always sent a birthday card with a $5 bill inside. We lived about 3 hours from her and saw her a few times a year, but you could always count on getting a birthday card with that $5 bill in it.
On my dad's side, I remember my grandma, Big Grandma, for her cooking and quilting. She made some of the most beautiful quilts, a couple of them I have today. I wrote about her quilts in one post on this blog a while back. She was always happy and generous and always pleased to see us come through the door. She also lived about 3 hours away, but moved next door in my teen years when my granddad had a heart attack. My granddad was a small, thinner man who seemed to be more grumpy and stern than anything else. He had a small piece of land and grew many different types of things including blackberries and potatoes. Some of my memories include helping pick a few berries and digging a few potatoes. I also remember working for him for a few days, for a few dollars, when he moved next door and got to feeling better after his heart issues. He paid me to help take nails out of old boards and then he built a picket fence out of them. I helped paint that fence and felt a little like Tom Sawyer at the time while painting this white picket fence. It was a time that I felt about as close as I ever was to him. He was not the type of granddad that you ran to and gave a hug, at least in my dealing with him.
I don't have a ton of memories from my grandparents and they have long passed away. If they were around now, I think I would inquire more into their history and the history of their parents and grandparents. My wife does family history research and it seems you can find a lot of info on births, deaths, marriages and info from and old census documents. But, you would be hard pressed to find actual details and facts about those same people.
I hope my grand children remember me as a fun and happy Pawpaw and not as a grumpy and stern man as I remember my granddad. I hope they will have fond memories of visits to our house for celebrations and parties with the whole family. We can only strive to create such memories during our short time on earth. Our family has a cruise scheduled in October of this year and it will be our second "family" cruise. Hopefully, these family times will create some great memories for everyone and someday the grand kids will say "Remember how much fun we had on the family cruises?".
If you are a grandparent, do you have similar thoughts about leaving your family with great memories? What memories stick out in your mind of your own grandparents? Were your grandparents active in your life, or were they distant? Does your family have a regular get together such as Sunday dinners, yearly reunions or yearly trips that are a tradition in your family? If you are a grandparent, how are you different that your grandparents?
Families are so important to our well being, so make that extra effort to keep them connected as much as possible.
My mother's only sister lived several states away and my father was much younger than his brothers so we never really had family gatherings or cousins who were friends. We have 10 grandchildren, aged 15-4 and I plan activities for them to be together. Each summer I hold a cousin camp, sleepover for the out of town cousins and plan activities and special experiences like a night at the drive in, a certain place we go for pizza, visits to parks and swimming. I take pictures and make each one a photobook for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteFor the family stories, I have put together so much from newspaper articles in our small town. A few years ago I made them family history books, simple ones with a photo of the relative and a little story. It might be a birthday party article when they were little or an article about singing in a school production. The military members were a big hit, I had some photos and listed their service. The boy's favorite is my 2nd great grandfather whose obituary talks about his civil war service and how he carried an ugly scar on his face for the rest of his life. Just anything I could find to make them come alive for them.
And, I am sensitive to relatives who never had children of their own, great aunts or uncles and try to include them, too. I don't want them to be forgotten.
I love the idea of cousin camp! What a great way to have everyone together. You are also doing an awesome job with the family stories. I'm sure that is a big hit with the entire family.
DeleteWelcome back, Mitch. Family connections are important to me. I had a maternal grandpa & a paternal grandma who were especially important to me for the love & security they provided to me. My son had connections to these grandparents as well. It brought me great pleasure to have my granddaughters play my paternal grandma's piano. And to have them be the 6th generation to be engaged with the BC branch of the family. It makes me happy to see my granddaughters engaged with their dad's cousins & their kids. I've documented some family history in the living will exercise that I engaged in through a Seniors Without Walls. I think it's important to know where & what we've come from, like my Viking heritage.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your family is well connected. That is awesome that your granddaughters played your grandmother's piano. Knowing your family history is indeed important.
DeleteMy mother's mother was also killed before I was born, and her father lived several states away so I never really knew him either. But I was very close with my father's parents, and I am intentional about creating that same relationship with my own three grandchildren. Two of them just spent the night last night!
ReplyDeleteI like the fact that you are intentional in creating those relationships. So many grandparents do not pursue the relationships with their grandkids that they should.
DeleteI have memories of half of my great grandparents and all of my grandparents but my last living grandparent passed away a few weeks ago before my 50th birthday. I was lucky to have known a grandparent for nearly five decades!
ReplyDeleteTo find details on grandparents and on back, one must subscribe to one of those historic newspaper conglomeration sites. Back then, newspapers were different than they are today and told lots of personal stories about families. I have found several hundred articles over the years and all of them are treasures to me.
You were very fortunate to know great grandparents and grandparents for that length of time. I bet those newspaper articles are very interesting.
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