Summer and Family Time - Part 1

The older you get, the more you appreciate family. You consider what they've been through, decisions and sacrifices they made, stories that changed their lives and turns of events that made it possible for you to eventually be born into the world as a unique individual.

This summer, Lynea and I have had the privilege to spend lots of  time with my family. We first went to the Barton family reunion in Florida, where my maternal Grandmother's family has been celebrating  every year for more years than I've been alive!

One of the things I most remember about our family reunions growing up is the talent show and the guarantee of much laughter. My grandmother, Martha Polk, and her 2 closest sisters, Aunt Mary and Aunt Helen, always performed a hilarious song and though they're all pushing 90, they did not disappoint this year either.

One of them is actually using a walker these days, while the other two are just being funny!

 We also got to spend a couple nights at my Grandmother's house in Wildwood, FL. Looked at lots of old pictures, watched old VHS's, heard lots of old stories about growing up on a farm and traveling around in a wagon. It's funny how our interests of getting back to the land and learning the arts of homesteading intersect with with my grandmother's actual upbringing. Although farm life was hard for the family in certain ways, it seems like there was no shortage of love, support, and joy. There's an old "simplicity" saying that folks in my generation stole from the depression era and that we heard repeated during our permaculture course a couple years back. It goes, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." I hear a lot of that simplicity in those old stories from my grandmother. Her family is a testament to the fact that there are different types of being poor. They may not have always had lots of money growing up, but they were rich in love and relationships. This is something that I admire, without glorifying the hardships of the past. It's also interesting to see how my grandmother has continued these habits of being frugal. She still grows beans, peas and collard greens at the young age of 89. She takes her food scraps out back to "feed the worms" and she cooks everything in her old cast iron pot. Let's just say that if she showed up at a hip foodie event, she'd have the most cred in the room!

Beans and collard greens

I hope other folks my age get to experience that with their grandparents. I hope that they can trade stories about compost and canning, talk about gardening methods and falling in love. Not everyone's story is glamorous or easy. But there is much wisdom from our elders. I'm grateful for the one's in my life.

While looking through all the pictures I came across one of my Uncle Hollis who married my Grandmother's sister, Aunt Lucille. In one of the pictures he's holding her and they're both beaming, young and in love. It was almost an exact copy of one Lynea and I had from our early days. These folks that once seemed old, who used to pat me on the head, hug me, and smile, who have already gone on from this life - here they were in this old picture with dreams and a whole life to live, hardly different from us. I see it and I think how we will also soon go the way of these elders.

What stories will we have to tell? Will we learn from our family's mistakes and successes, seeing portraits of ourselves in them? What will be our challenges and joys in the days to come? In an age that pits young vs. old, making it hard to relate and understand each other, I hope we can learn from each other like we've learned from my grandmother.

Just your everyday "back stretching"

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