Feburary 9, 2013 Greetings My Friend, I found the box again. It has been part of my life for decades and for some reason when I see and go through it I am transported to a time before I was born. I sense Grandma as a young girl who just lost her mother going through her mother's bedroom looking for things to remembwer her by. I love touching the old handerchief, the old cemetery plot card, the old sweater guards and trying hard to imagine the 7 year old child losing her mother. I then remember her stories. Great Grandpa would tie a string to Grandma's toes at night because she kept waking up with nightmares. She was to tug on the string if she needed her Dad to come comfort her. I always find that precious beyond words. As I sift through the box many of Grandma's stories come to mind. The time their Daved shaved their heads when they come home with head lice, it did not matter that the girl's heads were shaved along the their brother. Dad could not afford to miss work and this was the way to handle the situation. It seems cruel by today's standards but back then...well the kids did not like it but I sense they understood as well. I hear once again about all the caregivers their father got and how the kids ran them off. I remember the story about the time Great Grandpa wanted the wallpaper torn down and the hose the kids got and watered the wall with thus soaking the wall to a mess beyond words. Then there was the time Grandma had put on her brother's pants because she didn't like wearing a dress or the time Grandpa caught the kids smoking. I hear about Great Grandpa's tenderness with his daughter who seemed to be sick a whole lot. She had an abscess in her ear and was at the hospital to get it removed when it broke and made a mess and she did not need the surgery. Grandma's eyes were real bad due to measles. She always wore real thick glasses and you often wondered how in the world she was able to see. She did not learn to do hand sewing because she could not see. As a young mother I spent hours and hours visiting Grandma. My son was in preschool near her house and it was a favorite stop while I waited for him to get done to pick up again. Grand would make us a cup of tea, get out her cheetos and we'd eat them talking and loving on each other. I grew to know Grandma's stories and often felt I was living them right alongside of her. I lover her telling and retelling of her stories. Mom used to get aggravated at the same story being told over and over but for me I often found myself transformed back in time alongside of Grandma. Oh there was the time Great Grandpa took the kids to the cemetery to see their mother in an old Model T Ford. He had to crank the front of the car to get it started. Then the tire blew out on them and he had to change it. I feel Great Grandpa trying to see his wife with his kids and a car that was not working and how hard that must have been. I can almost imagine a time a world that was so different than mine. They had no TV, electricty was fairly new and expensive and cars were not as reliable as they are today. I can almost see Grandma and Aunt Gert taking a street car downtown. I can feel the young women's excitement as they went to a Speak Easy bar. I can see their flapper dresses. There is a picture of Grandma in one and she always told how her mother-in-law was upset that she wore a dress like that. This box takes me back in time each time I open it. I remember the stories about Grandma being a little girl who lost her mother. I think of Grandma as a young girl asking her Dad if she could quit school in the sixth grade so she could work in the school cafeteria and make money. His response was it did not matter since she was a girl and a man would one day take care of her and an education did not matter since she was a girl. Today I get upset that he would say such a thing but back then and education was not what it is today. I understand history a bit better by living Grandma's turn of the century life. I learn how people often coped with the stresses of life in that time frame. I also marvel at how people got through their life without all the modern convenieces we have today. I tend to see how God was part of the culture back then, even if the people did not go to church as Grandma's family did not. I was accepted that God was God and good behavior aligned with the teaching in the Bible. Back then if people did not go to church they did not berate people for not believing in God because most people believed in God. There was not making excuses because we said "God or Jesus" and the like. In America at the turn of the 1900's God was God and people did not have to apologize for their belief. When I was growing up we said a prayer each and every morning before starting school. We said the pledge of allegiance and it was accepted without much thought. A lot of my friends were catholic and I was protestant but we enjoyed each other anyway. The Catholic boys often wore Saint Chirstopher metals on their necs and I always thought that was attractive. I went to vacation Bible school with my Bapist friends and took them to the Presbyterian Bible school classes when our church had them. It seemed most important to have a belief in God and to walk with God than it mattered on what religon you were. The different Bible sschools were available for us to choose which church to worship in as we got older. I believe it is wise to learn what went on before in history. I believe that our aversion to God these days only harms us and it is not healthy. That is what I believe. May God bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon you. Love Janet