Lessons Learned from a Family Reunion
ByI just came back from a family reunion in Hodgeville Saskatchewan – population 150ish. One day my Uncle Felix and Aunt Hilda began telling stories about grandma and grandpa (that’s my great grandparents) who homesteaded there in the 1920s.
If you’re never been to southern Saskatchewan then picture bald prairie. The only trees were planted by hand and carefully watered with buckets carried from the wells. And the trees were needed to protect the houses (no R2000) from the winter winds.
It was the Depression and they were poor. Aunt Hilda spoke about grandma holding blankets over the windows during hail storms to protect them from the hail. She remembers the kids all crying because they knew what hail meant – no food. As a mother, my heart clenched at the thought of listening to the hail and knowing it meant not enough food for my kids.
And having no backup. No social services. No food banks. No credit cards. Just hungry kids.
Then Uncle Felix started telling a story about one Christmas when there was no money. So little money that they thought they might lose the farm. And would have if grandma’s parents hadn’t loaned them the money to keep going.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, grandpa wanted to make sure the kids (about seven at this point) all had gifts under the tree. With no money, he scrounged around town for scrap wood. He then stayed up late each night carving and building. The older girls got hope chests, the younger ones got toy kitchens (I still have my grandmother’s) and the boys got horse and wagons (Uncle Felix still has his).
The determination and love grandpa showed: not knowing if they were going to have a home and yet giving up sleep to give the children a good Christmas seems quietly heroic to me. No one is going to make a movie or write a book about grandpa. And I’m sure most prairie families have similar stories in their family history.
But it got me thinking about my life and my business. It’s easy to get scared about taking risks and trying new things. It’s easy to feel a sense of foreboding when I look at what’s happening with the economy.
And then I think about Aunt Hilda crying as grandma holds up a blanket to keep the hail out. I think of grandpa working late into the night with scrounged wood even as he wondered where they’d be living next summer.
Suddenly the things that seemed scary and overwhelming don’t look so bad. Suddenly I’m thinking if my family can go from wondering if they’ll have a home and food to hosting a family reunion with over 75 in attendance in less than a century, what can I do?
The next time I worry about taking a risk or wondering if I can succeed at something new, I’m going to think of grandma and grandpa out on the bald prairie. I come from hardy stock. I can succeed too.
Andrea J. Stenberg
Very inspiring. I wish certain kids could hear stories like this when the want the latest iPod.
Thanks Jacki,
I know what you mean. Too many kids just want the latest thing and don’t have a clue how to entertain themselves. I’m hoping some of these stories gave my son an idea of how lucky he really is.
Andrea
Andrea
Thanks for sharing some of the stories you heard at the family reunion and what you have learned from them.
As a family historian/genealogist, it is the stories of family that make history come alive for me. It also helps us to appreciate all that we have. We also learn how they handled good times and bad and they often provide inspiration for our own lives.
that’s crazy
Yes, we need courage, and I like inspirational stories to keep me going and forging ahead.
I was just reading a newsletter from an seo site telling its readers how Twitter 101 was written to really help people with social media marketing, but was not dumbed down for grandmas and tweens. I left my comment, and told this writer I believed there were plenty of grandmothers who could beat his pants off with social media and seo. Baby Boomers at least have the wisdom to look to the past for the future ahead.
Needless to say, I unsubscribed to that website.
Andrea – you so struck my heart. My grandparents moved from S. Dakota after 5 bad crop years. Grandma sold her wedding ring (they lost the farm) to get the money to come to Oregon where she ran a boarding house and my grandpa worked in a cannery. The tradition of home-made gifts, started when they were too poor to buy them – continues to this day. On Christmas may parents and siblings all exchange gifts that we have made…. some (like mine) a bit uneven in workmanship but made with love….
You inspired me to call my parents and tell them about your post – an get them talking about the chapters that came after the moves. I began interviewing my parents, grandma and cousins about 5 years ago – LOVE digital recorders that can take hours of recording and get ever smaller
Thank you again for this timely post.. my family reunion is the last week in August in Portland.
My fond memories of reunions made me convince my journalist colleagues that we should have an annual “family” reunion as we went through so much together and, in the early years in my work as a journalist I grew up – “into” that work/calling and a significant chapter of my life that affects me every day. I strongly suggest that other readers here consider such reunions with people with whom they’e shared a significant part of their lives… reckon many do already… especially precious tradition for boomers