For The Record

     So I was visiting with my sister, Judy, when brother Richard walked over and said: "I've been telling this story for years.  How you were so angry with Mom because she and you were pregnant at the same time".  Judy and I just looked at him and then each other.  "No," I said, "Our youngest sister, Suzanne, was born in October, 1955; I was married in January, 1956 and Leah, our oldest daughter was born in September, 1957".  I think he was disappointed, his is a much better story than the real one.

      Our youngest daughter, Maureen, and I are talking and she said: "I love the story about how you were in the Novitiate studying to be a Nun when you went on a blind date with Dad, and left the Convent and got married".  "Huh??"   Like most Catholic girls of the 40s and 50s, who attend twelve years of Parochial school, you consider being a Religious but no I was not in the Novitiate.  Besides women preparing to consecrate their lives to The Lord do not go on blind dates.  Maureen was chagrined, her romantic myth was shattered.

      This made me wonder how many families have legends or stories that have been passed down for years that are not true but are perpetuated and added on to as time goes by.  And that is one reason I started blogging.  As the oldest child, and still with some degree of brain power, it was time to tell some of the family stories I knew - true ones - before they are gone.  I have asked for help from siblings when I was not quite sure of the circumstances.  How I wish I had asked my grandparents and great Aunts and Uncles their stories and written them down, so that we had their history.  Yesterday's poem about the old man got me thinking  how much I don't know about our family's past.  
       Write down your story, what it was like growing up, experiences in school, interview your parents and grandparents.    History - his story - is our heritage.  We are the ant on the ceiling, but we need to tell what we see as we crawl across.   
     
        And then Maureen says:  "Next, you're going to tell me that the story of Aunt Pearl isn't true".   As far as I know it is true but..... it's to tell another time.