The Glue of Tradition

Children love stories.  My grandpa was the best story teller!  He told silly stories and would always have my brothers, my cousins, and me laughing with delight.  None of my other elders told entertaining stories but mom and grandma told us enlightening stories.

We knew how grandpa's pay at Maloney-Davidson Wholesale Dealers was cut in half after the 1929 Stock Market Crash.  Grandma had to go to work scrubbing floors for rich Jewish women.

We knew all about what happened to the family in the Great Flood of the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1937.  Through the sewers, the water came up to the bottom of Charles Street but no further.  They were proud that the family upright player piano survived the flood.  We knew of the time the Ohio River froze over and they could walk across to Clarksville, Indiana.

We knew of all the hardships, happily endured, for "our boys" during World War II.  The rationing of butter, gasoline, and so much more were definite sacrifices.

On the other hand, my dad had very few stories of his childhood.  His young mom (age 20) left his dad (age 52) when dad was two years old. He lived with his dad who owned a grocery in southern Tennessee and taught school.  Dad rode behind him on a horse to school.

Are we passing on our families' stories?  These are the facts and tales that make a family unique.  Most stories show how our family coped with the circumstances of their lives.  Some stories are not pretty but together with the good days, they paint a realistic picture.

Daddy's mother ended up being married five times, a great scandal to mom and grandma.  Uncle Lawrence, my invisible Great Uncle, was an alcoholic.  My Uncle Robert fell off the roof several times, once to the bottom of a concrete basement stairwell.  Another time he feel through a hole in the floor from the kitchen addition to the basement, also concrete.  After that, they built stairs to the basement.

Children enjoy learning what the jobs, education, and hobbies were of the elders.  I treasure knowing that my mom was an excellent seamstress and loved to create ceramics of many types.  Grandma turned out to be a skilled china painter. Cousin Martha had an oil painting exhibition of horses when she was in high school.  I see these talents in myself and in my children.  I formerly was a really good seamstress (now I seem to be mostly allergic to needles!).  I'm a beginner at ceramics but really enjoy it.  My daughters and I used to get a bowl as big as a round dishpan full of popcorn and do our various needlecraft projects sitting on the bed, floor or chairs in one room for hours.  #1 son, Billy, has had wonderful drawing talent since he was a child.  Can you see some of the talents in your elders exhibited in yourself or your children?

Many fathers have passed their business, carpentry, gardening, or other skills to their children.

Today I was chatting with my friend, Nadine, about cooking. She's a great "scratch cook," doesn't need recipes, can concoct wonderful meals with "just a pinch of this and a handful of that."  I, personally, am a slave to recipes.  If I deviate, I always ruin what I'm cooking.  Daughter #3, Cathy, however, is such a wonderful cook she worked as a pastry chef and was on local TV several times.  Cathy decorated cakes that people bought when she was a teenager!

Tradition unites generations more than anything else could begin to do.  Talk to the elders in your family , if you're lucky enough to still have any elders.

When they were alive, I asked my mom and grandma to write down some of the things we talked about.  What did Louisville look like when 8-year-old Grandma moved into the shotgun house her parents built in 1906?  It was the third house on the long Charles Street.  The rest of the land was fields.  They had an outhouse (ask your children if they know what that is!)  How can we appreciate the present if we don't know the past?

But mom and grandma thought their spelling and grammar was deficient.  It was, but that would have made their stories all the more charming.  I wish I would have had time to just make a recording of their stories, but I didn't.  So now it is my task to pass on what I remember, not only to my children and grandchildren but to my younger brothers and cousins.  We all share.  It's such fun!

You could do serious family genealogy research on www.ancestry.com - for a fee. Be sure and 'pump' those elders for stories!  Please see this blog, Saturday, January 4, 2014, "Lineage."  Lord, we know that your ancestry and traditions were very important.  Help us pass on our family traditions, especially the religious ones, to our beloved families, we pray.