This last weekend since Jeramy was going fishing with buddies on the Grande Ronde River, I got the chance to spend some time with my cousins East of the mountains. First stop was to Katy's where not only her 4 kids were there, but Emily's 3...soon to be 4 (as she was in Las Vegas) and my 1. So 8 kids in total. I do not know how Katy did it all week...what a stud..I almost broke down the couple of times that I was left alone with them for short periods of time.
After Katy's I got a chance to go visit my Aunt Marlene who is my Grandma's sister and learn more about my grandma that I never thought to ask when she was alive. Such as where she was born...Pacific Beach and that Aunt Marlene was the only one who wasn't born at home. That she went to Olympia Highschool until she dropped out to go work for the telephone company, I learned about her 2 best friends, Dorothy Darcunans and Ruth Jackson, who took her to a dance where she met my Grandpa, He had just returned from the war and recovery from an injury he sustained in his hand. So he went out and bought a fancy suit, but then got in a fight at the dance either over Grandma or about his hand...at any rate Grandma ended up taking him home lol. My Grandma would always tease Aunt Marlene when she was little and upset by saying "Rip A Tip A Now" and would occassionally do so as adults because they were so close. I learned out of all of my Grandma's siblings there were 3 that went by their middle names, Albert "Gene", Helen "Patricia" and Alice "Marlene." And Uncle Buster got his first name because when he was born he didn't cry and the doctor patted him on the butt and said, "come on Buster cry," Grandpa Duncan use to call Thelma "Bill" most likely from his desire to have a boy and his friend Bill. She later drown whe she was only 13. The family moved around alot but Duncan Eddy still holds the world record for the amount of shingles sawed in an 8 hour period..that has still not broken to this day.
It was just really nice to spend this time with Aunt Marlene and learn about not only her and Uncle Roy as well as numerous questions I never thought to ask about my grandma until it was too late.. It dawned on me that I didn't know much about my Grandma until it was too late, so I am fortunate to get a front row seat to the show.
I would encourage all of you to find out as much as you can about the people you care about so that someday you can pass those memories off to the ones you love.
I was so busy this weekend I didn't think to take any pictures, hopefully Auntie Katy took some she can send. But here are some pictures of pictures with my Grandma in them.
Let's see other than that things are going great. Jeramy is working more, and Sage is trying to work us over more, and for the most part getting away with it. It is really hard sometimes to keep a straigh face when she argues with you when she is in trouble. Also, when she was little I was so OCD about anti bacterializing everythingn she would touch...even public toys such as at Chuck E Cheese, I'd always always wash her hand with the countless hand sanitizer I would have on me...never EVER let anything go in her mouth...now, not so much :o) I guess we are all growing up....now I just need to reclaim my spot in my bedroom from her because she (and he) likes to cuddle with his daddy.
3 comments:
Was nice seeing ya this weekend even if it was only for a little bit. It's fun to know these little tidbits about people isn't it, but never forget that even if you don't know everything about someone, you still knew who they were. I'm sure you have a lot of your own memeories to pass on to Sage and Sage's kids of Aunt Patty, and those are going to be the most important ones because they are personal. I love ya Mia! See you soon hopefully
Some of my fondest memories as a child were sitting around the adults and listening to them talk about their own childhood, the people they knew, and the hows, wheres, and whens. Reading your post about visiting with Mom flooded my heart with those memories that I will always cherish.
You are so right saying that, while there is time, we need to ask the important questions. Mom is the only one left out of the original 10 surviving kids. I don't know how that makes her feel, but I know she greatly misses her family. Thankfully, her memory is still sharp and she remembers names and places.
We have often said that we should have written more of it down while Uncle Buster, Aunt Janet and Uncle Bob were still living. What I truly wish is that Grandpa Duncan had lived longer so that I could have heard more of his stories. I have an old notebook he used to write in, and one page is full of story ideas he intended to write one day. Oh, the things he could have told us! One of my earliest memories is him handing me my own little notebook and a stub of pencil. One day, not too far away, I know I'll be reunited with some of them and we will all sit down and have that visit we missed.
Anyway, I really enjoyed your post, Mia. Thanks for the pics, too!
Love you!!!
Aunt Karen
It was really great to see you this last weekend Mia. I loved our talk and I agree about finding out everything you can about the ones you love. After they are gone it's great to be able to sit and talk and laugh about some of the things they told you. Oh and also, I don't blame you for sanitizing everything at Chuck E. Cheese. I'd keep it up if I were you. LOL
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