We Are FAM-I-LY

Grandpa hates pictures.  Like really, really hates them.  He hates pictures like the rest of the family hates the work jumpsuits he wears everyday, regardless of the occasion.  Which is why I took this quick snapshot of him and Big Man a few months ago.  Because I knew it would be one of the few that I get of him during his time here on earth.  And I want my grandkids to know who their great grandpa was...jumpsuits and all. 

I realized the other day that my kids have no idea who their ancestors are.  There aren't a lot of stories about the men and women who came before them being told around the campfire or the kitchen table. 

I remember some of my family's history being told to me when I was doing a report for school in Junior High, and I've read little bits and pieces about some of them here and there, but other than that, it wasn't until just recently that I made some really amazing discoveries about my lineage.  And I know this sounds stupid, but knowing where I came from has helped me deal with some of my most deepset issues. 

I am finally starting to feel there is more to who I am than my issues and my feelings and my past.  Does that make sense?  I belong to something bigger than my little semi-dysfunctional unit. For some reason, learning more about my forefathers has helped me see things from a different perspective.  Maybe it was just the fact that my world got a little larger when I began to own my heritage.   

Anyway...the more I learn about some of these people who started the gene pool to which I belong, the more grateful I am for amazingly strong ancestors who were willing to make some pretty tough choices and some big sacrifices for future generations.  So it occurred to me that my boys need to know about these amazing people too.  They need to know that their world started long before they were ever born and that there were folks who paved the way for them.  They need to know their people. 

The Idaho Trip - Part 2

So where did we leave off on the Idaho thing? Oh yeah! Grandpa and Darlene (still waiting for a pic of Darlene form SOMEONE!). Cool elderly people.

Really there is nothing else to talk about that is really exciting, because we didn't do anything really exciting in Idaho. Okay...unless you call stealing some plums off a wayward tree exciting. Yeah...we did. The Big Plum Caper. Before you question my integrity, let me 'splain. First, I didn't take them, my mom did (how's that for shifting accountability?!). Second, the tree was so overgrown with plums that it had broken and the branch we snagged the plums from was hanging over the guys fence into the street. Kind of. It was very, very close to the street. If you kind of pulled over to the edge of the street, onto the gravel. Third...there were about 3000 plums on that tree going to waste because no one, and I mean NO ONE, was tending to the tree or the plums! And you know what? They were de.li.cious.

And I guess you could call our trip to the Golden Corral (mmmm...love their rolls!) somewhat exciting. Actually not so much exciting as educational, because we had a rockin' tour guide who drove us through Nampa to get to the restaurant. His name is Chad. He's Darlene's grandson. He's 26. He's a good kid who works with Fish and Game and knows ALOT about farming and nature and stuff. I asked him tons of questions, mostly because I didn't want him to be bored driving around a van full of ladies that were 20-40 years older than him. I figured if I kept him talking he wouldn't think about how he could bail and leave us stranded on some backroad in rural Nampa. But Chad would never do that. Like I said...he's a really nice guy. Chad's the one who told me about silage (google it)and farming and how they grow seed corn. To grow hyrbrid seed corn, only one row out of five is allowed to keep its tassels. That one row, called the bull row, provides pollen to the heifer rows to produce the hybrid seed. I found it all fascinating. Maybe you don't, so I'll move on. But I'm all about layin' down some knowledge now and again, when I can. So now you have a topic of conversation next time there's a lull..."Hey, do you know how seed corn is grown?" People will be amazed that you know about seed corn. Unless you're in Idaho. Or Iowa. Or Nebraska. So only talk seed corn in the big city, at like an art exhibit. Yeah - your welcome.

Chad and his Entourage

So...back to Idaho. It was not exciting because we did not want exciting. We wanted relaxed. Which is exactly what we did. We went there to see Grandpa. We went to visit him everyday. We looked at pictures and listended to stories about him and his life.

And we puttered around Darlene's garden and we went to Walmart a few times. I know, sounds extremely boring. But it was really just what the doctor ordered. It was sooooo nice to just slow down and enjoy what was around me.

Me and Uncle Max puttering in Darlene's Garden

This particular part of Idaho is farming country, so almost everywhere we went there were farms and the most spectacular old barns, of which I got no pictures. Why? Because my camera sucks. I think I've said that before and NO I have not remedied the situation yet because there is no disposable income for a camera. There is no disposable income for anything!

So I borrowed this picture from Jane Loughney @ travel.webshots.com:



Lots and lots of barns like thise everywhere. Beautiful and sad to see them disappearing.

So back to the farms and such. Everywhere we went someone was growing something! Corn fields were present in abundance, as were melons, tomatoes, squash, sugar beets, pumkins, grapes and onions. It seems like everyone there has a garden as part of their landscaping. They just all grow stuff! Then when we listened to them talk? It was like a live lesson in commodities and futures trading! "So and so down the street bought this field of corn and he's gonna harvest it next week, then sell the silage to the dairy over at Emmett. Then we got 3 contracts of feed corn that we gotta get in and get shipped over to so and so, they're gonna process it sell it to the feedlots in Kansas." It was amazing to see the wheeling and dealing going on and that was just with the corn!

I know...it sounds RIDONKULOUS that I am this enthralled with farming and produce. I just think it's cool. I guess maybe I really am a small town girl at heart. I would be absolutely at peace in a town where there is a Walmart or a Super Target and nothing but acres and acres of farms and fruit trees. As long as I have an internet connection. Hey...a girl's gotta stay connected, right?

A Few Days in Idaho - Part 1

I took a quick trip to Idaho last week to see my step-grandfather, who just turned 93 years old. He is an amazing man. He fought in WWII and was among the first troops to land on Omaha Beach. The stories he tells about that day are heartbreaking. But he survived uninjured and went to work for the VA when he got home. He spent 28 years there. He wanted to take us to see where he used to work, so we drove up to his old office, which is in a beautiful old brick building at the edge of a huge, green park. He decided to go in and talk to the people who work there now. We were a little unsure about how he would be received. He went in alone and came out 5 minutes later. When he walked out the door and headed twoard the van, a guy stuck his head out at us and waved. He was shaking his head and laughing. Which made us wonder what my gandpa said to them. We asked him how the office looked. "Oh hell, that place is a damn mess." he said. That was it. End of the conversation.

I have to say, that is about as negative a comment as you will ever hear come out of his mouth. He's not a negative guy. Which is good for us. We tend to see the glass half empty. He's been a good example and he's a very uplifting person to be around. He is pretty much a happy guy, with good things to say about his life, his family and his country. He had a lot of reasons to be negative if he had wanted to be. He grew up very poor, had to quit school to take care of his family and lived through very hard times during the depression and then the war. But he chose to look at the good and focus on what was right in his life and he and my grandmother had a grand retirement and enjoyed life to the fullest. She was his 2nd wife. They met at the VA. She was a nurse, he was in supplies. It was a great love story and it's hard for him that she's gone. She took good care of him.

He lives with his sister-in-law now, who also takes good care of him. She is also an amazing woman. She is 73. She gets up every morning at 5:30 to cook breakfast for her son and sometimes her grandson. Yeah, you read right. She cooks them breakfast before they go to work. Like eggs and bacon. Or homemade biscuits with sausage gravy. I gripe about making toast some mornings! Then she goes outside to work in her garden. Where she grows these:

and these

and these, among other things.

Then she picks them and cans them.

After she's done in the garden she goes back in to cook breakfast for my grandpa. About 9:00 a.m. Then sometimes she goes back out to the garden, or she finishes her canning or cleans house or runs errands. After lunch she starts dinner for her son and maybe her grandson and my grandpa and whoever else stops by. This 73 year old woman does more in one day than I do in a week! I asked her how she does it all. Know what she said? "You just do it! I just get out of bed and get to it. I don't think about why. I just do it. I've worked hard all my life and don't know any different." Know what she used to do? She used to work at the family dairy farm, getting up at 2 a.m. to milk cows. She also worked at the local sugar plant bagging and packing brown sugar. In between all that she managed to decorate cakes for people's weddings. While raising kids. oh yeah! She also took care of her brother with Down's Syndrome until he passed away at age 57!! She says she's slowed down since her husband and brother passed and she retired. Really?

After leaving Idaho, which by the way was nice and cool and green and I loved every minute of it, I came home with a greater resolve to be happier, work harder, give more and to cook better meals. It lasted about 1 day. I caught a cold on the plane, my little guy keeps messing with a fever that won't make up its mind about whether to stay or go away and the homework and chores didn't seem to get done while I was gone. Is it written somewhere that husbands lose their brains when wives go out of town? Mine had to call me because he couldn't find the butter. I should have known that anything beyond that, like homework and chores, would just be too hard.

Despite all the catch up and feeling cruddy? I resolve to try to stay more positive and follow the example of two people who are 30-50 years older than me. I want to work harder, to appreciate what I have and to see the things that are right in my life instead of focusing on all the things that I think are wrong. Excuse free living? Is HARD, people!

Oh yeah...remind me to tell you about getting the tomatoes from Darlene's garden home on the plane. Funny story.