Category: Daily Prompt

My Family’s Roots

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Daily Prompt: Roots

 

familytreegraphic
Image from Clipart Fox

A few years ago I became interested in genealogy.  I realized that it would not be much longer before family members were no longer around to provide information on our family’s roots.  Actually, my dad’s family is already all gone, but years ago I was able to get a lot of details from my grandmother on that side of the family.  We also sat and went through all of the old family photos she had and I noted who they were.

My parents divorced in 1970, but were separated for many years before that.  I went to live my dad’s mother and she essentially raised me.  My mother chose not to keep a relationship with me and so I called my grandmother mom.  That’s how I felt about her. She was a wonderful woman, strong, independent and very loving.  But I had very little information about my mother’s side of the family.  Although we were not in touch, she is a part of me and I loved her.

I have just recently, within the last year, found the remaining members of my mother’s family through facebook.  I was so happy to find them.  Three cousins from my mother’s two brothers.  I had not seen them since 1958.  What a wonderful thing it is to find family you have missed for so long.

When I was in Pennsylvania this past October for my husband’s memorial, my cousin Joe brought my Aunt Anne with him to the memorial and I had a wonderful visit with them. We were able to get together the next day also and I was able to weed through some more family roots with her.  I gained a good bit of information from her that day.  But the most important thing I received was the love she has for me.  Even though it had been almost sixty years since we have seen each other.

I have also been working on my husband’s side of the family.  His mother is still alive and has been a great source of information for this journey.  She has always kept a diary so she had events and dates written down.  I was, however, able to surprise her with some information she didn’t know.  I’m thankful for the relationship I have with her and the ability to share this journey with her.

Working on my family tree has been a very worthwhile experience for me.  It is such an inexplicable feeling to begin to know where I came from.  To begin to understand what it took for me to be where I am today so to speak.  The struggles and sacrifices that my ancestors made to ensure each generation had it better than theirs.  To tender the roots of my family tree.

I’ve Got It All Right Here

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via Daily Prompt: Zip

When I think back to how it was when I went to school, even high school and college computers were not a required part of our school supplies.  How did we do it?  Imagine having to write long papers by hand using a pen.  Then later using a typewriter with a ribbon that needed to be changed and no memory back up if the dog ate your assignment.  How did we make it through?

Well, it seems to me that long before computers and the verbiage it brought to the English language we were using zip files.  We would learn lessons and file the info in our installed computers, our brains.  We would input so much that there was a worry we would run out of room causing a melt down of the installed hard drive.  So, the invention of the zip file actually happened long before computers.  

Within our brains are many, many zip files with names attached to them.  When we need to recall one thing or another, we simply push the key in our brains to open that particular zip file.  And voila, information right at our fingertips.

Today our children have access to computers not only at home but in school.  I can remember my two younger children using a computer daily in elementary school and my grandchildren began using them in pre-school.  No wonder most of them are teaching us how to use computers and how to fix the problems that we have with them.

Computers are a great advantage for study I won’t deny it, but there is a disadvantage to computers too.  I see that the wonderful experience of spending time in a library is in decline.  You can access just about any information on just about any subject through the use of computers.  What you can’t get is the feel of paper that has helped hundreds of people look up that same interesting fact, or the smell of old books, or the beautiful art that is etched onto the pages.  The silent sharing of a table in the stacks as you comb through volumes of written words.  The joy of being around so much knowledge.

Truth be told I would rather be without my dishwasher than my computer.  I find it makes my life easier in many ways.  It connects me to people I may never have had the opportunity to connect with and it gives me an outlet to stretch my abilities.

Harmony

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Daily Prompt: Harmony
I am at my granddaughter’s dance competition this weekend. There are 17 schools of dance competing here. For the first time in my eight year old granddaugher’s dancing career, she did not take first place for her dance solos. She competed in two.

Firstly she had to be at the Convention Center by 6:30 AM this morning and take the stage at 7:35 AM for her first performance. She did not wake up happy and her allergies are bothering her. Everything is blooming down here. So, she begins her dance and proceeds to do a costume adjustment. Now I have been watching this child dance since she was three and her compete since she was 5 and I have never seen her do this. From the get go she has had an amazing stage presence.

Secondly at 8:00 AM she took the stage for her second solo. The music started and she not only readjusted her costume, but she just stopped and stared at the judges…she had forgotten her moves.  She did, however, regain control and completed her dance. The fact that she didn’t run off the stage crying says a lot about how much she loves dancing and how responsible she feels to not only her parents, but to her school and fellow students. I was/am very proud of her.

We had a break at that point so we took Alannah for some breakfast where she proceeded to have a minor meltdown over our meal. In all fairness I may have been the cause of the meltdown. I made the mistake of correcting her during breakfast. Any other day or time she would have listened, then moved on. But today was not that day. Clearly, something is not right with her today. She finally revealed she feels awful with her allergies and she is so tired and she just had a bad, bad morning. She is so disappointed with her performance. How do you get an 8 year old to understand that this happens. Professional dancers who are world famous have bad days. Maybe they don’t attempt to adjust their costumes, but they do forget where they are in dances and what comes next. Alannah seemed to accept those words of wisdom finally.   She actually didn’t have much choice as her mom has a strict no whining policy.

Next, we are back at the competition. Alannah is in two group dances. Hip hop and clogging. The girls dance onto the stage and my Alannah is back. She is clogging with great abandon and they are looking good. These girls are dancing as one unit, all together and their moves are sharp. After that performance she has her Hip hop group dance. She’s still got it together, but not like the clogging number. Again off the stage, long face again. Next up- award ceremony.

Alannah earned Gold for her two solos which were tap and jazz. So, although she didn’t win those dances, she took second. That should give you an idea of her talent. She earned second while messing up. She was relieved about the outcome.

Next up lunch. Off we go to Fudruckers.

We get back just in time for the group awards. Her clogging group dance earned Platinum and took 4th over all; and won a special judges award for technique. She was beaming. Unfortunately her hip hop earned her a top 20 overall.

I now sit here in the front of the convention center writing this blog waiting for Alannah’s sixth and final dance of the weekend. It’s her tap group dance. Followed by two more numbers from her studio and then awards. Our next trip out of here will be to the hotel where I will not waste any time getting into my bed.

So, what has this to do with harmony you ask? Well it occurs to me that without harmony with your environment it is difficult to perform your best. To maintain this harmony, you must get adequate sleep, eat well and keep illnesses and allergies in check.

It also occurs to me that harmony with your dance partners is important for success. In music, without a complimentary blend of harmony you are left with just noise. In dance you are left with a collection of ungraceful missteps. With that harmony, you soar with the music and glide across the floor producing a beautiful display of talent and ability.

 

Dancing Competition Weekend

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Daily Prompt: Spike

I am sitting here in my room at the Breakers Hotel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina after an exhausting day at my granddaughters dance competition.  She’s 8 going on 35, but sound asleep on the other side of our suite.  We left Wilmington, NC this morning and arrived at the Convention Center in time to watch one of her friends perform her very first solo.  Alannah has made it her mission to be at the competition even when she is not performing to support her friends.    Alannah explained to me while we were headed down here today that she completely understands Marlie’s need for support because when she (Alannah) competed in her first solo she was also the very first one to dance in that competition too.  See what I mean?

Alannah has to be onstage at 7:30 in the morning which she has to be at the Convention Center at 6:30 when the doors open.  Have I ever mentioned I am not a morning person?  I spent my entire career in nursing working night shift.  Needless to say I am not looking forward to this little spike in my circadian rhythm.

I do enjoy watching Alannah compete in dance.  She has two solos she is competing in tomorrow and then four group dances she is competing in.  She loves dancing and she is at the studio every day during the week but Thursdays.  She takes ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, clogging, hip hop and acro.  When I was a kid you had three choices, ballet, tap and jazz.  I will say that with the addition of more types of dance it has opened the door for more children to participate.

Alannah’s older brother who is 13 takes hip hop too.  He doesn’t compete, but he does participate in the recitals through out the year.  Andrew has Asperger’s and the dance has done wonders for his motor skills and his social skills.

During one of the breaks late this afternoon, I went outside with my camera to see if I could find some good shots.  Alannah was with me and I showed her the way that light can change how a picture looks without changing anything else.  I had her move around so that the sun would hit her target at different angles.  She was really interested in taking the pictures and told me she didn’t realize how much you can affect the picture by just moving light around.  I can see an SLR camera in her future.

That is my dream.  To someday have an Nikon SLR camera.  I really started getting into photography when in 2000.  I have slowly gotten better cameras and believe it or not I have some really beautiful shots from a Kodak point and shoot camera.  I love it because it was not too big and I could take it with me anywhere.  When it died I was so disappointed.  I so wanted to get a good SLR camera then, bu I just couldn’t afford it.  After doing a lot of research and finding out that most cameras today only have the digital screen on the back of the camera to see your object I decided to get a Fujifilm.  It is a bridge camera.  Point and shoot but with lots of options for your own settings.  Several good filters pre installed.  Wireless transfer of pics to phone, tablet, and a 50x zoom.  I have gotten some great shots.  I was at a Phillies/Marlins baseball game two seasons ago and I was getting shots of the players swinging and missing the ball at home plate.  Got the ball in mid air and the bat moving past it.  I couldn’t be more pleased with this camera.

Well it’s after 11PM here on the East Coast and 5:30 will be here before I know it. Goodnight one and all.

Fry

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Daily Prompt: Fry

I have to say that since I started a blog here at word press I am enjoying the daily prompts and I am actually blogging daily.  Now, it’s only been a few days so I wouldn’t get too excited about these results just yet.  I think a wait and see approach works best here.

I find today’s word a bit of a bugger.  What I know about fry, frying, fried and to fry is all about how it applies to food and temperature.  I have read a few submissions on the prompt page for today and am impressed with some of the more abstract applications used but noting seems to stimulate my poor brain.

So my meager offering for today is simply to pull a couple old phrases out of my childhood memory.  For instance this one about the temperature of the macadam that the roads in Levittown were made of.   “The road is so hot you can fry an egg on it.”  That was usually said right before some nice man turned the bolt on the fire hydrant and let the water flood the street so we kids could play and cool off in it.  That was so much fun.  Gee I haven’t thought about that in years.

Then there were the special dinners run by the firehouses and churches on Friday nights. “Fish Fry all you can eat.”  YUM!  Now the fish fry’s only happen during Lent. You just can’t beat a piece of fried fish with fries.  I can remember my daddy stopping on the way home from work to get that wonderful treat.  We had a picnic on the living room floor and ate on paper plates.  That was really a treat for us kids.

And who can forget about Fried Green Tomatoes.  Not the movie, the food.  What a delicacy.  We would all crowd around the picnic table out back and just stuff ourselves with them.  There were no fences separating back yards in my neighborhood and it was not unusual for an additional little person to appear at your picnic table, or a big person either.  It was all for one and one for all back then.  And everyone pitched in to clean up.

I guess I know more about fry than I thought…Good memories.

A Little Bit Of Karma

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Daily Prompt: Chuckle

Have you ever had the experience with a teenage daughter who just thinks she knows it all?  My oldest daughter, Kelly, who is forty five years old now, could send me right up the wall with her know it all last word attitude.  I would completely lose it with her.  And then I finally got to the point that I would say to her, I hope you get one just like you.

Now, I want you to understand that Kelly had some wonderful qualities.  She was kind, considerate, and thoughtful to all of her friends, but apparently when she turned twelve she declared war on me.  It didn’t matter what I said, she had to disagree.  We were driving home from Orlando Florida one time.  Kelly and her brother and sister were in the back seat of the car.  All that child did was complain.  “The car is too small, she’s touching me, etc.”  We finally stopped for gas and I opened the back door and told her to get out and that she could stay in Virginia.  Her poor father was running around the car trying to make peace between us and saying “No one is staying in Virginia.” And the gas station attendant didn’t know if he should call the police to let them know some crazy person was trying to abandon her daughter.   Needless to say it got really old really quick.  Finally when she turned twenty two I got the wonderful daughter I had had for eleven years back.  We have been wonderful friends ever since.  So, anyone going through this I want you to know there is hope.

Any way, I had an ace in the hole.  I just had to wait until she became a mother. She is now the mother of three beautiful children.  Two boys and one girl.  Uh huh, you guess it. My granddaughter is just like her mother.  Oh sweet revenge.  🙂  When we are all together and I hear Alannah giving her mom some attitude, I just sit back and chuckle to myself.  I can see steam coming from Kelly’s ears and I can feel the frustration.   And then she realizes I am watching her.  She says to me, “I know ma, I got one just like me!”  I look at her and smile slowly as I  tell her that it is my reward for not killing her.  That is when she turns to her daughter and says “Thank you Alannah for turning me into Grami!”

Ya gotta love Karma.

The Door

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Opaque

I heard a noise the other night
It came from behind my door.
It made me think of my childhood
I was only three or four.

A noise would wake me up and then
I’d look around my room
To see if all was well in there
As fear crept over me.

Then I’d get out of bed
And lean against my door
I would hear Mommy yelling at Daddy again
My heart would hurt some more.

I tried to listen for a while
Then got back into bed
Still crying from the pain I felt
I wondered what would happen next

Then Daddy left for work
And I tried to understand
Was it my fault they were fighting?
Or was Mommy drinking again.

I wanted to run and hug them both,
And beg them to stop fighting
And tell them how much I loved them
But fear kept me in my bed.

I wasn’t supposed to know,
What was going on
So I said a little prayer
Asking God to fix it all.

My Jolt For The Day

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Jolt

My three grandchildren were on Spring Break from school last week.  When they are off I try to have them spend a day or two with me one on one because there are three of them and only one of me.  I had just spent three days with Aidan.  He’s the middle child of the family and my crafting buddy.  I know that we will always find some fun things to do together and this visit was no exception.  So after leaving him at the dance studio with his mother and sister I am thinking about what a good time we had and how I am looking forward to spending the next few days with his older brother Andrew who is 13.

Andrew is sitting next to me in the front seat of the car and we’re talking about what we will do for the next couple of days.  He mentions something to me about a story he had written on the computer with his Pop Pop.  He keeps asking me if I remember this or that about the story.  It dawns on me that I have no idea what he is talking about.  I am doing my best to fake it, but he finally catches on and says, “Grami, did you forget about that story?”  I have to fess up and admit I did indeed forget about it.  To that Andrew says, “It’s OK Grami, you are old and old people forget.”  Needless to say I bit right through my tongue trying to keep from becoming hysterical with laughter.

Climbing Out of the Sorrow

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Climbing

Have you ever been told happiness is a choice?  I never really bought into that idea until now.  Last August I lost my husband of 40 years.  I never expected I would have to go through the death of my life mate.  It was sudden and cruel and it left me feeling this awful pain, emptiness and anger.    I wanted to shrivel up and die too.

At first there is so much you have to attend to.  Making funeral arrangements, changing bank accounts, notifying social security, etc.  Family and friends are constantly with you while you handle all of the lists of things that need to be taken care of.   Then, it all stops. Everyone goes home.  No one is making you dinner anymore.  All of a sudden your home is emptier than it has ever been.  The reality that you live alone hits and it hits hard.

I began to wake up and make a conscious choice for happiness.  I began to climb out of that sorrow to face another day and another and another.  I still stumble occasionally but I put one foot in front of the other and move onward and upward.  I choose to look for the beauty that surrounds me and to lean on my family for strength but mostly to trust that I am exactly where God means for me to be.

God has given the human spirit a determination that will sustain us beyond belief.   It’s what fuels my climb out of the sorrow and anger that greets me each morning and all of a sudden I realize that the journey isn’t as long today as it was yesterday.