Just to let you know, I’m a history geek. Ancient, modern, or period: I am so there. One of my passions is genealogy, because it is family and history. Not to mention scrutinizing hundreds of archive documents in print and microfiche to verify a single fact. I have tracked down many of my ancestors, yet have a few that are still tantalizingly out of reach. But this is not a mere listing of births, marriages, offspring and deaths. There are stories in those lives that begging to be brought to life again.
When I was young, the different family members told me stories about growing up, their parents, etc. Great stories, but not any better or different than what I could read in books. Some of them seemed to be just tall tales for my amusement. After all, who could imagine that my 70 year old grandmother (who weighed 100 pounds fully dressed in winter clothes) would have ever carried, much less shot a .45 pistol?
Later I learned that she was born in 1902, in a town that is now at the bottom of Lewisville Lake, Texas and later moved to Sadler, Texas. As a family of farmers living in a sod house close to the Indian Territory, they had a need to protect themselves from “outlaws and renegade Indians”. The part that ran chills down my spine was when I was visiting my aunt and she showed me the actual pistol, which my grandmother had gotten from her father.
My grandmother led a long and fascinating life. I miss sitting and chatting with her, drinking tea during the day and sipping elderberry wine after the kids went to bed. There are many more interesting stories about her and my other family members, but I’ll save them for another day.
Speaking of interesting old ladies, I got a tip to check out a blog by two old friends. I enjoy reading it because they shoot from the hip like my grandmother did. Check it out at:
http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/
Don’t tell them I sent you- Grandma never liked a snitch.
