My husband bought me a service called Storyworth for Christmas last year. As life got busier and busier we adults stopped sharing stories and wisdom. So I wanted a way to share stories and wisdom with my daughters and future generations and this was perfect. I believe any one of any age could do it and keep up. It sends you reminders and if you don't like the question you can choose another.
Above is a pic of me around the time I talk about - maybe a bit older because I'm thinking I was in second grade. After 40 your memory gets hazy. I believe this was fourth grade getting ready to head into those years that are trapped between cute and beautiful and we know them as middle school years. Middle school does not make it into any of my Top 20 Memories of Life. So let's get onto the question.
Who is one family member you wish you had gotten to know better?
I wish I had gotten to know my Aunt Ruby much better. My fondest memories of her are when I was a little girl. I remember after school I would run down to her house and hang out with her. She would give me Neapolitan ice cream or fix me a fried bologna sandwich - thick bologna from the gas station / deli. I'm from the South - this is a delicacy here. Then we would watch Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune.
Her house was such an escape. She lived alone and never married so she treated me like a princess. I remember one time my brother was mean to me she pulled off a hickory stick and chased after him.
She taught me you can use the thinnest branches on a tree to brush your teeth. Just rough up the ends and shred. We would spend afternoons in her garden or how to clean a fish - not my favorite - at her cement picnic table. She would let me play in her make up and dress up in her dresses - she only wore dresses. We would spend time going through her old albums filled with pictures of our family for generations back. . She was the keeper of memories and I can remember the smell of her home to this day. Looking back she was such a gift to me.
I wish so much when I got older I remained that little girl that would run down to her house and just be. Oh the wisdom she would have instilled. I grew up though and those afternoons became replaced with phone calls to my friends or writing in my room. Then dating and so forth. She was a firecracker up until she broke her hip while I was away at college. I hope to one day be like her - a firecracker until the end.
