Do you know what your grandfather did for a living? How did your great-grandmother meet your great-grandfather? Do you know what your parents did on their first date? What is your mothers most embarrassing moment? Do you know the answers to these important questions? I know some of them but only because my relative wrote a personal history. 
I have been thinking a lot about personal histories and how grateful that I am that my relatives took the time to sit down and remember and then put pen to paper or fingertips to old typewriters! They wrote stuff down! A few years ago my dad started writing his and I remember thinking that he was getting a great head start on getting his history done. He would send it to me and ask me for suggestions and I would send it back with questions I wanted answered. I can not tell you how much that history means to my family. I only wish I had written 1000 or so more questions for him to answer.
Clifford and Irv playing.
I have been thinking a lot about personal histories and how grateful that I am that my relatives took the time to sit down and remember and then put pen to paper or fingertips to old typewriters! They wrote stuff down! A few years ago my dad started writing his and I remember thinking that he was getting a great head start on getting his history done. He would send it to me and ask me for suggestions and I would send it back with questions I wanted answered. I can not tell you how much that history means to my family. I only wish I had written 1000 or so more questions for him to answer.Clifford and Irv playing. I have been encouraging my grandparents to write their histories! (Hi Grandma and Grandpa!! Love you!) Grandma has compiled several histories of other generations that I read, use and enjoy immensely but now I want theirs! Grandma has made the comment that she can't remember anymore and that got me thinking about how I can't remember anymore either so I am in real trouble in 40 years. 
That leads to my topic. (Wow that was a huge intro!) I am going to start on my history!! I am not a good journal writer (this blog is pretty much the only writing I do!) so I really need to have a history of some sort. I am going to incorporate the blog though! Every Wednesday I am going to post the question of the week and I may or may not actually write my answer on the blog but I will answer it somewhere that day! 
Join me if you like. Answer the questions on your blog or in your history or in your journal but answer it. It will be fun. I hope. 
I will be stealing some of my questions from my good friend Anita's book that she wrote called "Self Preservation". Thanks Anita!
The topic for this week is: Who would you say is your first love?
I will answer my own question later today. I hope. Man if I don't I will be so sad that I can't even complete the first one. Somebody call me if I don't post by 11 pm! I need serious help!
3 comments:
This is a fantastic idea! And it's interesting that you're doing this because in just these last few days I've been thinking to tell my family stories on my blog just to get them writen out. Everyone doing this together will be fun.
What a great idea! I think I will join you with answering these questions, although I might not do them all on the blog. So fun!
And I loved the pictures. You know, everytime I see a picture of Grandpa Rencher I see more and more of my dad...
Ian Jenkins... I guess he was my first "crush", but in Kindergarten I thought it was real love. I shared the exact same birthday as him (almost to the hour, we figured out). Anyway, his family was polygamist or something, so they took him out of public school after the 1st grade. That was the end of that. Then I met my true TRUE love in 9th grade... Mitch Rencher.
What a great project for the year, Kelli - you are awesome... and of course Mitch is sitting right next to me and requests that an entire chapter be dedicated to him and how much he means in your life... :)
Post a Comment