Memories of a Legacy….
While I’ve had a really good day, I’ve been given some stuff to think about. I had a conversation today with someone who has known me since I was about little to nothing. This person is a year older than me, and I have always looked up to her.
Our lives took different paths, but we were truly like sisters. We are related, just from different ends of the gene pool. We both have a similar upbringing, from the same family values. Both of us both have the same feeling, that we are all that’s left of a legacy.
How do you deal with that? While we talked on the phone, and both giggled over silly stuff, both of us were brought back to a happier time in our lives. We talked about, summer’s spent together, different cousin’s and things we did.
We talked about jumping off the docks into the lake, and learning to swim. We talked about having both of our Dad’s who were best friends and cousins too, give us hugs and laughing at both of our antics.
Time passes and we both became adults. She became someone who has a career and is everything I am not. I became a mother and a housewife, and Caregiver, every thing she isn’t. But, at the same token, we are both kind of the same.
We both decided that we have come from a very prominent family, and they did a lot of good for the town that they lived in. It’s kind of hard sometimes to live up to the Legacy. But between her and I we decided we would do the best we could.
We have tall shoes to fill, and we both kind of decided that we cannot fill those shoes, but what we could do, was to remember every bit of our growing up years and rejoice in them.
I guess times are a bit different from when I was a kid. A bunch of stuff that meant something when I was growing up, does not mean that much now. I spent time with my cousins, and my Grandparents, and I did not keep myself entertained by the internet, or technology. We chased firefly’s with a mason jar, jumped off the docks into a pond, and just giggled over silly stuff. We did not rely on the t.v, or the internet, or any of that other stuff to keep us busy. We would go out into the corn field, and just act crazy, or go to a cousin’s ball game and rejoice that they won, and commiserate when they lost, I seem to remember pizza was always involved..
I guess I am getting off track here, because while I understand my heritage, I’m not quite sure how to keep it going. I can tell my kids about it, but they really don’t care. That truly saddens me. I guess they got more of their Dad’s gene pool than mine.
I guess, in my conversation today, both her and I want to leave OUR mark, just not our parents mark. Don’t get me wrong in any way shape or form, because both her and my parents and our Grandparents have truly left something of a Legacy, I think we both want to as well…
Sometimes, I wish “Back to the Future” was an event I could attend. I would make some changes, and then there are some things I would not change.
I guess part of getting older and dealing with these changes is a part of life. I’m sure at one point or another, our parents have said it too. Life goes on and so do we, I guess I just don’t want to lose The Legacy of what I’ve been given.
The memories, I cherish, the Love, I feel, the family, I’m loosing, the Angels, I have.
Someday, there is going to be a major reunion up in heaven, and while I still have my time left here, I seriously am ready for that party, cuz it’s gonna be a big one.
Trip down Memory Lane…..
Ok, ya’ll after spending the day with Cam-the-Man and also Momma, then spending the evening talking to the Electrician’s friends, I am in a nostalgic mood, and would like to take you down memory lane with me.
When I was a kid (really not that long ago), we didn’t have computer’s, cellphones, and MTV, VH1, or video games. We had inventive entertainment. We would get up in the morning, eat breakfast and then hit the streets. (Kind of like Back to Future, it makes A LOT more sense to me now) In my case, it was a country neighborhood, with about 20 houses and woods all around us. I met up with the neighborhood kids and we rode our bikes all day, or played baseball, or climbed trees, or just went playing in the woods.
We invented games, but mostly we just rode our bikes on all those country roads. We didn’t have to worry about “drugs” or being kidnapped. Our biggest fear was not getting home before the street lights went on. Yes, my little country “hood” had those. And if your parent’s screamed your name, you KNEW you were in trouble.
We used to catch fireflies with mason jars. Then we did get adventurous and catch Bee’s with fireflies. To this day I’m not sure how I never got stung, but we did catch them and then let them go.
My childhood changed when we moved to England. I didn’t have a bike anymore, but I did still wander the “streets” of London and our small town of Surbiton Surrey. I learned how to ride the double-decker bus, I really enjoyed the “top deck”. I had freedom as a child, that kids today don’t have. At age 15, I was allowed to ride the train to London by MYSELF and wander around London and then take the train home.
When I became a “Younger adult” and had to start working, well I did. My first job was at a Hair Salon, I was at the wash station. I washed client’s hair. Uhm, probably not good for me as the first few people’s hair I washed ended up with a shower. I guess I was never meant to be a hair dresser.
I ended up getting a job at “Boot’s the Chemist”. I remember it well, I started out at the makeup counter and moved to the soap aisle. (My whole family remembers it too, as all they got for Christmas present’s that year was something from Boot’s). But I remember getting my ”pay-packet” and feeling VERY grown up.
But then I decided to join the U.S. Air Force . And that’s where I will stop my story. Tonite, was about remembering my childhood and I had a GREAT one. I didn’t have to face a lot of things that today’s kids do, I was NEVER bullied, or picked on, nor did I ever feel that my life wasn’t worth living. I was very active, whether it was doing something by myself (as an only child I was okay with this but I did have a LOT of imanginary friends). I didn’t sit inside all day and play video games…we didn’t have any. We used something called our imagination. Man, those were some DAMN good times. If the sun was shining…we were outside, if it was raining….9 times out of 10 we were still outside.
I drank water from a hose…uhm..to all those people who tell you it will kill you today, HEY, I’m still around and kicking!!!!!
I listened to stories from my Grandma about what she did for entertainment in her day..to my Dad telling about what they did for entertainment in his day. Now, while I have never climbed on top of a barn and took a wagon with me, well…maybe I missed my chance. But it seems to Camsgranny that things USED to be so much simpler and so much more fun than what the kids of today have to deal with. This would be MY opinion.
