Veterans Day Thankfulness.....

I can't believe it is Friday already!

Where did this week go?

I've had a lot on my mind lately...

Family

Money

Hardship

Holidays

Giving

Inner Reflection

Reminiscing

and

being Thankful....

I have shared in the past the struggles my family

has faced in the last few years..

a few weeks ago

I stumbled across a book at my grandmothers

full of accounts of people

who lived through

The Great Depression...

I asked her if I could borrow it...

This book has reminded me where I came from and how lucky I am.

Some of the stories I am reading are stories

like my grandparents and great grandparents have told me.

Let me tell you though,

I have learned a lot that has shocked me too .

It is all too much to get into in one post...

but the best part of the

book is the hope and actually the fond thoughts the writers

have of those hard times...

"We did not have money,

but we didn't know we were poor"...

I'll be sharing some of the stories and some of

my own family....

Today for Veterans Day

I thought I'd share two vintage family photos

The young man on the right

is Alton Earl Gray

my grandfather on my dads side of the family...

Doesn't he look like a young Paul Newman?

I absolutely love this photo.

I know he was in the Army and fought in The Rhine River Valley..

Sadly I don't know a lot more...

He liked to talk....but we never talked about The War

We are doing some research though...to be continued...

This is a photo of my Great Aunt and Uncle

Mannon and Nathaniel Cameron

I love this one too because it was taken on the front steps

of my Great Grandmothers house...

I was told this was taken on the day they got married...

might be true..?

Obviously he was in the Navy,

Doesn't she look amazing?

I thought I'd share these because I realised there is a whole generation

of our family where every male served in some branch of the

armed forces...

We were lucky to only have one not come back....

another story for another day.

Hope I have inspired some of you to do some reflecting

and to all my current family tree branches who

are serving our country...

Thank You.

How beautifully leaves grow old.

How full of light and color are their last days. 

~John Burroughs

Wishing you a happy Autumn and a wonderful Monday!

Words of Advice....

Last month my grandfather

turned 80.

We had a small party

for him at home.

My grandfather has never been a man of many words

and as he has gotten older sometimes I find myself

struggling to try and find what to talk about with him.

He does enjoy when we come to visit,

watching the kids run around,

and a good meal.

So on this birthday...

after he blows out his candles on his cake,

my mother asks him-

"Dad, do you have any words of advice or wisdom for us now that

you are 80?"

He stared for a long time, and said "No."

My mom couldn't believe that so she said

"Really? Nothing? Oh, come on..."

He stared again for a few minutes and then said

"Life

is

 hard...."

I didn't expect this man of few words to have come up with

some long speech.

So I thought it was kind of fitting, kind of funny.

What else could you expect from someone

who enlisted in the Navy during WWII

when he was actually underage (probably under 16) ?

Who lived through that war and saw God knows what as a young boy/man?

Who lived through the Depression in the rural south and

whose parents were Scotch Irish and Cherokee Indian.

(Unfortunately ,socially, two things people did not want to admit to at that time)

Who married at an age when most of us were finishing

or

 still in high school

and

 had a child to support?

Who could have handled that kind of pressure before the ago of 21?

Even though all these were common practice and totally "normal" for that time period.

Who struggled with alcohol but finally beat it....

He lost his middle child unexpectedly several years ago

and is the only surviving child in his own family now.

I imagine life has been hard....

but

I do know there were ,

and are

 good times in there too.

There is a good part to this story ...

As we were leaving that day...

My 3 year old walked out onto the back porch...

( let me explain my grandmother has a bit of a thing for thrift shopping too...

like that is a surprise!)

But

she has a good portion of her back porch stacked with some of her "treasures"

which is always a bone of contention between

my grandfather and her....

So

as I was saying...

My 3 year old walks out onto the back porch and looks around

motions a sweeping gesture with his arm covering the "pile"

and says

"Gees' whata' MESS!"

"All Junk!"

I could not help myself ,

I burst out laughing!

My grandparents were behind me and my grandmother didn't hear what he had said...

but

my grandfather sure did!

I whipped my head around to look at him

and out of that quiet, tiny man

came the biggest grin and laugh I have ever heard from him...

He then said

"See, even a 3 year old agrees with me! Who needs to be 80 to have wisdom?"

We all burst out laughing and then of course had to

explain what went on to grandma...

Who in the end had a good chuckle herself too!

I'm not sure if this story had the point some of you were expecting

but

I just had to share it..

Life does not always hand us what we wish for....

but there are some true good times and some true hard times..

Many people look back on those Hard times and realise those are what

make us who we are

what really taught us lessons

and made us for the better.

I think Life is how you decide to view it and your attitude that keeps you going.

Life is a big Mixed bag if you ask me.....

Images of Fall...

Can you guess?

Halloween Love......

Halloween was always fun as a kid...in the neighborhoods I lived in, I only remember one or two that really did up their whole yard. One of them I would never go near because the guy who lived there always dressed up jumped out at you. People hanging from trees,etc. Too much for "little" kids in my opinion.....
The neighborhood I live in now is absolutely amazing when it comes to Halloween. Some of the yards are like stage productions!


( 1st Halloween)

(2nd Halloween)

After my first year here I really got into it too.

Then when I got married my husband became totally obsessed with our display!

The markdowns the day after Halloween are like his own type of

Black Friday!

The last few years we have had to back down a bit

with Baby Keeper around!

The first year was just too much.

Then work and weather got in the way the last two.

Baby Keeper really was not totally aware of what it was all about either...

Until....

(4th Halloween)

This year!

They have talked about it at school and he was ready!

He even asked to be a Pirate this year!

I was totally giddy of course with my Pirate love and all...

but there went the whole Star Wars theme I had collected all year....

We decorated in a kid friendly manner this year.

Still not to the extent that we normally do.

To our surprise he was not afraid of much last night .

Went and tugged on the Wolfman, talked it up with a Zombie and a totally decked out Witch!

They were stage worthy costumes too,

not something off a rack!

My point being...

Mr.Keeper was totally into it too and I saw

that spark back in his eye!

Even though we were all so worn out we went to bed by 9!

Today he was up and out in search of a few markdowns for next year...

I know he is hoping this will become a tradition our son will love too.

I'm thinking he will...

He crawled into bed with me at 6:30 a.m.

snuggled up and asked.....

"Hey mom, can we do Tricks or Treats again tomorrow?"

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!