I am starting this blog to engage my family in "remembering".  There has been so much change in this world in the past 50 years (my lifetime) in the way we live our lives everyday, to communication sources (this blog, for instance) to technology, to the medical field and practices.  Sometimes to sit and reflect on so much is overwhelming.  My desire is to bring out "old" memories, shake the dust off them, and bring them to life for this generation and the next.  It amazes me that my Mom is a great-grandmother, that if my grandmothers were still with us, they would be great-great grandmothers.  WHERE DID THE TIME GO?  And have we used it for good or just let it slide by?

I for one have let a lot of the time slide by.  Always busy, working and raising children, I sort of kept myself apart from the rest of my family.  For several years I have wanted to make a family tree, one that just didn't tell the names and dates of ancestors, but a family tree that told our story. Maybe it was the "turning 50" this year that made me realize that I may not have a lot of time left to accomplish this.  Maybe it was my oldest grandchild turning 12 this year.  GOOD GRIEF!! His dad was only 12 yesterday.  HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? 

I only know that there is a wealth of information in our family that needs to be passed on to the younger (or junior) members of our family.  For instance, when Jeff and Jackie were expecting Jeffrey, Jeff said they needed a microwave to heat up the baby bottles.  I just looked at him and said "I raised 3 babies without a microwave.  He was shocked!  "How did you heat up the formula?" he asked.  No air conditioning growing up?  How in the world did anyone survive?  Wringer washers...black & white tv (or no tv at all)....just to name a very, very few.

So I hope you will join me in my stroll down memory lane and share with this family all the memories you have of growing up, of stories told to you by your parents and grandparents, and the fun and heartache of raising your very own family.  Please feel free to include photos, favorite recipes, family traditions and anything else that YOU feel would be important to "pass down".  I am currently working on a website for our Family Tree and plan to have it up and running after the first of the year.  A lot of the information you share on this blog will be transferred to the website later.  And it will have it's own blog as well.  So please, put on your memory caps and lets begin this trek together.  Since Thanksgiving is so close and I won't get to be home with Mom and whatever kids show up there, I think I will start my first trek down memory lane with a visit to a past Thanksgiving.