Genealogy Forum NEWS
December, 1998
HOW WE SPEND OUR HOLIDAYS I
Spending Holidays to Remember
Submitted by GFS Susi@AOL.com
Many a Holiday come and go, some with great anticipation and joy, others with much anxiety and concern. My preference of holidays is Thanksgiving for family time and 4th of July for fun.
Thanksgiving -- because it's a time for the gathering of the families to share stories of the year and lots of good food. This can be done with a plain baked chicken and baked potatoes and corn or green beans and biscuits. It can also be done in an elegant and lavish manner. For me, it's more the gathering of family together, than the layout on a table. It's a time for reflection, on where we started and how far we have come. We do not need a mansion to have mastered our ship. In todays' society, it's more meaningful to think of others, whom have less, than to think of what, we want more.
The emphasis on spend, buy, get, need, must have, has taken the delight out of the Christmas season. It does not take away the joy of what Christmas means to so many. It's a time for even our children to think of those who have not and include them in their holiday time.
In this city, we have a Toys for Tots drive and other activities by many groups that extend a helping hand to various needy families. Sometimes families get new clothes and furniture, others may get blankets and jackets to wear to school, beds to sleep on instead of cold floors. We have international neighbors to the south and they sleep in the cold and wet and have no homes, just as here.
Our first cold night of the year (fall) was last week. The amount of homeless families in our area with children was shocking. They sleep in cars and under trees and some agencies can help and others say they do not qualify. They let them sleep in cots at night but 6 am in the morning they are back out in the cold. Pretty terrifying to me. New Years brings new hope and rules and plans. Sometimes we succeed other times we fail.
Other holidays bring many nostalgic moments, many great times and fun. Baseball on 4th of July, Dad's favorite Chocolate Cake, Aunt's favorite Strawberry shortcake, fresh from her garden. Both now long gone. The memories linger on.
Memorial Day to remember our fallen and forgotten service members. Our family has had many. We were here since before the Plymouth Colony. We lost family in almost every skirmish had on a large scale. My Uncle's suffered much from WWII. Korea and Vietnam is my husbands' era. My brother's children all suffer from side effects from Agent Orange that the service denied for so many years. My husband was blessed when his planes went" in the drink" and was saved along with other crew members. We as a family have served from REV WAR to current war, skirmish or action. I have a nephew preparing to go overseas now to defend our country.
All these thoughts make me so thankful to be an American and to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving and share with others. It makes Christmas more meaningful and thought provoking. It is not gifts of man made nature. It's the gift of ourselves every day we live to help others that makes any holiday worth while.
So our winter holidays are a major time of reflection and thankfulness for all that we have. We try and cover at least one other family with some basic needs, to share the holiday true spirit. The 4th of July is a time of fun, parades, picnics, ball games and family pranks and mirth. We even get to have reunions some times and that is really super.
Our most unusual event is when we barbecue at Christmas and call family in Iowa, etc., and say the sun is shining and we thought we tell you we BBQued today. A carryover from being in Hawaii for four years. We never felt like Christmas ever came weather wise. Our cards showed Santa surfing in the ocean with toys on his back. Funny though, first rain deer I ever met was in Hawaii. Flew in with a man called Santa Claus, and I was born in Wyoming.
Holidays That Made A Difference
Submitted by GFS Barb@AOL.com
When my grandchildren were little, we would collect cigar boxes during the year to fill for Christmas, for the District Home in Manassas VA. (The poor farm of the District of Columbia in its day). Then starting the first of September we would start collecting items to go in the boxes, some things we gathered earlier as we saw sales. They liked combs, toothbrushes, hand cream, note paper, cards, stamps, one year we found great wash clothes which brightened up the bottom of the box., handkerchiefs (for the men big white ones or the western style with color) small packages of needle and thread, and always put in the needle threaders (the children loved showing them how easy it was to use them). It was a challenge for them to think of things to put in the boxes, and they became quite good at spotting things during the year. Then the first week in December we wrapped them, and what fun decorating the children had, lots of their friends asked to help, and learned how much fun it was to share. We made a production of going there to deliver the packages, usually had about 10 children along. They took cookies and punch along for them and planned entertainment for the party.
Then when we were home with our own cookies and punch everyone told about how much fun they had, about the favorite thing that occurred, what was said to them, and how good they felt sharing. This got them interested in visiting and talking with older people and as they got older they made many a visit to nursing homes to visit and entertain.
The Night The Stars Fell
Submitted by GFS Angela@AOL.com
This event is part of my family's Oral History. My gr. great grandmother, Amand Young, spoke of this event that occurred in her childhood, when the stars fell.
She always told this story, that eventually allowed me to make a more accurate guess of her birth year. Born a slave in Tennessee, Amanda said she was a small girl, when one night while sleeping in the quarters, someone started screaming outside. Her story continues:
"They started yelling to look up at the sky. We went outside and there they were falling everywhere! Big stars coming down real close to the ground and just before they hit the ground they would burn up. We were all scared. Some folks were screaming, some were praying. We made so much noise, the white folks came out to see what was happening. They looked up too, and got scared.
Then they called all the slaves together, and for no reason, they started telling us who their mothers and fathers were, and who they were sold to. The old folks were glad to hear where their people went when they were sold away. They made sure we all knew what happened. You see, they thought it was Judgment Day."
Unfortunately, it would be many years before Amanda would be free from enslavement, and she and her parents remained slaves until the war ended.
Only a few years ago, while reading a book of African American quilt makers, I learned of a slave woman called Harriet Powers who made the most unusual quilts. One of the panels of her quilts, told the story of the Night the Stars Fell. A quick exploring of the footnotes gave a detailed reference to this event, and this date was learned. Amanda was only a child in the fall of 1833. Her birthdate was never known, but this historic reference to a spectacular astronomical event, in addition to our family history of the Night the Stars fell, somehow made an estimate of the time of her birth more realistic.
Every year on the evening of November 12, I drink a special toast to Amanda and her family, and her spirit that continues in our family today, and I go outside, and watch the stars.
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