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I never thought much about reminiscences of older family members, and in fact often found them tedious. As a kid and young adult, it seemed like boring history. Anyway, I was more interested in my story than in theirs. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that their story is my story. I wish I had written a family memoir, with all the collected stories of grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles. They are all dead now, and I’m the repository of what little history remains. I have a few snippets and they fascinate me at this point in my life. I see the importance of a family legacy of values and character, and I appreciate the courage of many of my ancestors. My maternal grandmother’s family came here from Czechoslovakia before her birth in 1914, not speaking English and with only the clothes on their backs but believing in the promise of America. My paternal grandfather lost a family business and his wife at the start of the Depression. He went back to the family farm with his five children and eked out a living somehow. My dad recalled severe poverty but also always recounted with pride that his father turned away the social worker who offered to place some of the children with people who could provide better. Before his death, I coaxed some more stories from my dad, and they were great! Some inspiring and some just funny, such as the time he punched his high school football coach in the nose and got away with it because his sister worked in the principal’s office. His mother was a teacher and her love of reading and emphasis on education had a profound impact on my dad, even though she died when he was five. Because she had imparted those values to his older siblings, two of his brothers became schoolteachers and his favorite brother Bill persuaded my dad to go to college after he got out of the army at age 20. Dad also told me about the time my very naïve and straitlaced mother got drunk on punch at a dean’s reception. He said he got her outside just in time for her to throw up in the dean’s shrubs. We shared a good laugh about that one! I had to get to this point in my life to realize that my ancestors were real people with real life stories, people I would have liked to have known. I wish I had written that book so that when my kids are old enough to reach this realization, they would have a book of family memories. --Terese
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January 2022
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