REMINDER BY GRANDPA JIM

For those who may have "tuned in late;"

This blog is intended for folks who want to share a memory or two. Such stories are usually called "memoirs." If you are seriously curious, scroll through those already posted. Such a "journey" will give you a vast variety of the topics that memoirs might include.

I host this blog to illustrate how, when you reach my octogenerian state, you may wish someone had written a memoir for you! There is a rumor that I have Native American genes, but I'll never know for sure. Why? Because a court-house full of records burned to the ground, and there is nobody alive who can help me.

It is a fact that my grandfather SOLD two families to a neighbor! (My mother, therefore, was an indentured servant on a Michigan farm.) Why did he and HOW COULD HE do such a thing? Believe it or not, an encyclopedia once printed the statement (to the effect) that THERE IS LITTLE EVIDENCE THAT SUCH A PRACTICE WAS HARMFUL!!! Slavery not harmful???

My dad served his navy apprenticeship aboard a four-masted schooner in 1897 or so. He became a gunner's mate, third class, and therefore had to know every job on the ship. How I wish he had kept a JOURNAL, WHICH WOULD BE LIKE A WHOLE COLLECTION OF MEMOIRS!

Please don't let the experiences, the history, the wisdom of past generations escape from your heritage. Encourage those people to put it in writing. Send it to me and I'll post it. I have posted enough of my own, already!