Recording My Youth

It's Thursday so normally I would be writing a post about my younger days for Mommy's Piggy Tales. However, I finished the fifteen week series started back in July last week. In fact, you can see all the links on this page.

I have always been interested in the past. Genealogy has always been of particular interest to me. However, I never fully delved in to because I have lot of family members who had already done so...way back before the internet made it even easier to locate one's family line.

What has always interested me though are the stories. What was Uncle Jay like as a baby? What did my Mom like to do as a girl? What was it like growing up in the 1930s during the Depression?  That is what has always interested me.

Sadly, all of my grandparents are gone and my mom is now gone as well. There is a popular quote that says:

When an old man dies, a library is lost.

I have had far too many libraries burn down in my life.

Thankfully I was able to save some memories. About eight years ago I sat down with my grandfather and his older sister and just talked to them about what it was like growing up - their strongest memories. At the time she was over 90 years old and my grandfather was fast approaching that age. I brought along a mini-cassette recorder and taped our entire conversation.

I used to work as a medical transcriptionist at home and had a tape transcribing machine. I typed the entire conversation up and included some photos that I had scanned. I treasure those memories.

Since I never took the time to do this with any of my other grandparents (although, my paternal grandfather died before I was born) or my mother, I don't want to loose the opportunity to pass my life story along to my sons.

Family stories help you to know where you come from. They give you a connection to your family and help build relationships. They make you feel special.

I'll be joining Mommy's Piggy Tales when the next session begins on October 7th. This session will only be 12 weeks instead of 15. There is also a session starting on October 11th for six weeks to record the "young adult years." I'll be joining that one too. If you think you'd like to join, you need to email Janna: jannajoy25 (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Recording my memories for my children is just something I need to do. I know that someday they will appreciate it.