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May 10, 2018 By Chip Hughes Leave a Comment

Mother’s Day — A Time to Remember Our Mothers

Sunday May 13^this Mother’s Day this year. Each year a day is set aside for us to honor and remember our mothers and our grandmothers. As you contemplate writing your life story, your mother and grandmother will play an important part in it. I had the opportunity to interview my mother a few years ago and learned some things about her I never would have guessed! It was exciting to learn things I never knew before. As I write my own history, I can now include those stories about her.

Your life story must include your mother!

If your Mom is still alive ask her about her life. If she has passed away ask her siblings (your aunts and uncles), if they are still alive. Use the following list of topics to help you write about your Mom:

Where did she grow up?
What was her childhood like?

If you have heard stories about your mother, write them down. Where and when was your mother born? If you are like me, your mom was a child during the Depression (1930s). For many of us the “Depression” was nothing more than a thing we heard about in history class. If your mom is still alive have her tell you about life during that time. How much more exciting it would be as you hear about this from her.

Maybe she was a child of the sixties. Was she a “hippy?” She probably has some interesting stories.

Think how interesting her story will be to your children and grandchildren. In many cases the stories you write about your mother might be the only ones they hear!

Ask your mom about her school memories

Where did she go to elementary school?
How different was her elementary school years than yours?
What was your mother like in high school?

Ask your mom about her childhood

Whenever I interview someone in the course of writing their life history, I always spend a good length of time talking about their mother.
The following excerpt is from a woman living in Chicago:

My mother was born in June 1895 in Messina [Sicily] and came here to the U.S. as a very small child, probably preschool age. During WWI, her family was forced to return to Italy for some years until after the war. When they returned to the United States, my mother lived at home with her mother and her older brothers. I recall her telling me that all the “boys” turned their paychecks over to their mother who was head of the family.

Another example is from a fellow I interviewed a few years ago who talked about his mother:

My mother was one of the people that got polio. When I was about nine or ten years old, she had to go into the hospital. It never did go to her lungs, but it affected her back and her arm. I remember when she went to the hospital in the summer, she said, “I am going to be home by October.” She was quite paralyzed on her left side.

Mom used to take us over to the creek to swim, and we would go on hikes. She had fun at the expense of housekeeping. Sometimes the house got kind of ramshackle, and then we’d all have to go through and blitz the house to get it all cleaned up.

Family swimming together — Swimming with my family

Describe your mother

What did your mother look like? Can you describe her?
As you think back on your mother, how do you remember her — heavy or thin?
Do you have photographs of your mother?

A gentleman I interviewed a number of years ago remembered his mother this way:

My mother was small with black curly hair. She was very pretty. She had that black curly hair until she died, it never turned grey. My mother did not have any scars or anything else she tried to cover up.

She did all the cooking, and she was a great cook. We always had big tables of food. Her brother, would bring his family for dinner. We always had wine for dinner. Macaroni was my favorite thing she made. We always had macaroni with meatballs and sausage.

Write stories that can characterize your mother.

Write about her personality. Was she a happy person or melancholy, given to fits of depression, or did she have a temper and did you ever feel her wrath.?

One of the many things I can remember about my mother was her determination. She never graduated from college. When she married my dad, she dropped out of college (Indiana University). When I was in high school, I remember my Mom taking night classes, with a firm determination to graduate. It seemed like she was going to night school forever. Eventually she did graduate and I remember we all attended her commencement where she finally received her degree. I will never forget her determination.

Be sure to make your mother a part of your life story!

February 13, 2018 By Chip Hughes Leave a Comment

Why Your Ancestry Matters to Your Descendants

If you are writing the story of your life, why do you need to include the story of your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles’ cousins and siblings? This is the part of your life history that I like to call your family history or ancestry.

It’s most likely that the memories you have of your grandparents will probably be gone if you do not write them down. If your grandparents died before your own children were born, it is up to you to preserve these memories. Unless you write or record these memories/stories, they will be lost and forgotten to all your future descendants.

More Than a Photo and a Name

It’s important to tell these stories in your life history. Funny, sad, inspirational, and spiritual stories are an important connection to your past. It is these stories that help to define you and will help your children and grandchildren know who these wonderful people were. Let them be more than a photo and name on their pedigree chart and family group sheet.

Your grandparents (and possibly your great grandparents) most likely provided a stable influence in your life. Your aunts, uncles, and cousins probably also played a big part in your life. It’s important to share your memories of them with your children, grandchildren and future generations so they can also feel their influence. By including these stories you can ensure their impact on your life is preserved and future generations can also benefit by their wisdom.

Some Ideas for Describing your Grandparents

The following is a list of some ideas you can use to help you describe the impact they had on your life:

Describe any heirlooms left to you by ancestors
How would you describe their personality
Tell a story that characterizes them
Was your grandmother a good cook, what did she cook that you liked the most
Describe what they looked like

Here is an example of what you can write about:

Grandpa was born on April 5, 1871, in Shunesburg, a small community in Washington County, southern Utah. The family eventually moved up to eastern Oregon where he was a farmer. His principal enterprise was a dairy farm with about 12 cows milking at any given time. The milk was separated and the cream sold to the local creamery for the manufacture of butter. The skim milk was combined with grain, and chopped wheat, to form a “mash” which was feed for the hogs and chickens. Hogs were sold to the local meat processor. Chickens produced eggs and were sold to the local restaurants—-Campbell’s Oasis, the Bob Inn and the Caton Hotel. He also had a small number of sheep, a few beef steers and a team of horses. There was no tractor.

The farm was largely pasture for the livestock with the remainder planted for alfalfa hay. The setting was spectacular. The farm had as its backdrop Alder Slope and the forested Wallowa Mountains. The Wallowa River and a small tributary stream ran through the property which was dotted with cottonwood trees along the streams. A small grove of aspen and a number of juniper and spruce were also found along the river. Grandpa acquired the “Bank Pasture” across town, where the local bank had pastured foreclosed cattle herds during the depression. Here Grandpa grew grass hay in more than sufficient quantities to feed his livestock and had income from marketing hay.

Tell About Your Memories of Your Aunts and Uncles

Your aunts and uncles are also an important piece in your family story. In many cases they play a tremendous role in your life. Be sure to talk and write about them.

Did you have favorite aunts or uncles, describe them to your children and grandchildren?
On the other hand, which aunts and uncles were not your favorite?
What were the fun things you remember about them?

Uncles can play a big role in our childhood development:

I remember spending a lot of time with my uncle Jack (John) because he had a cabin in Logan Canyon. It was a government arrangement, I don’t remember how that was, but we went there all the time. He lived there in his cabin in Logan Canyon. It was really nice, and we went there every summer and spent tons of time. So, it was a real gathering spot for my mother’s family. We went there as frequently as we could, and we had great times and played games under the card table.

Don’t Forget About Cousins

Cousins can also provide you with great stories. Were you close to your cousins? Were they also around and did they become good friends?

What were some of the things you all did together?
Why were they important to you?
Have you stayed in touch?

When writing your life history, be sure to talk about your ancestors. As mentioned earlier the memories you have of them might be the only ones anyone has. Make sure you write these stories down.

Even though your story is about your life, it’s important to talk about the ancestors who influenced you.

— And Parents

It’s important to include stories about your parents. Talk about them, and describe them. Did they ever talk about how they met? Most of us don’t know anything about our parents before we came along. Talk to your parents; ask them about their lives. A sample of a remembrance of a mother.

My mother was wonderful. However, to be embarrassingly honest, when I was a teenager, I snapped at her a lot. I yelled at her, just silly talk. Not mean talk ever. I was never mean to her, but I always loved her. She was a wonderful person. I just sort of thought I was cooler than her. But I didn’t stay that way for very long. She was a wonderful person.

She was beautiful. She had beautiful black hair, naturally curly. She kept it short, but she still went down the street with curlers in her hair like everybody else, even though she didn’t need them. She had naturally curly, black beautiful hair. She was a beautiful woman.

Mom didn’t play the piano but she was a great singer. She sang with a beautiful alto voice in women’s choirs. She was really good with all of my children. She was a wonderful Grandma. She would go to Europe with her friends and travel, and bring back little clothes for them. She was a wonderful grandmother.

She was smart. Not cocky smart, just smart. Like dad, mom was also an avid reader. She was nice and friendly. She was a friend with all of her neighbors. When everybody went fishing they brought some of the fish to our house. I didn’t like fish, but she did. They all brought fish to our house, and she was always grateful. She was loving, nice, and fun. She enjoyed playing cribbage with her friends.

Your memories of your mom and dad will be very personal and add an element to your story that will provide your descendants with insight into who you have become and in turn why they are like what they are.

December 21, 2017 By Chip Hughes Leave a Comment

Christmas Trees — A Symbol of Christmas Tradition

This blog is about real Christmas Trees. I know that artificial trees are becoming more and more popular, and this might shed some light on why!

Again, like all my other blog posts, when you read this I want you to think of your childhood and the way you located your Christmas Tree. Did you go out and cut your tree or go to a Christmas tree lot?

A Shortage of Live Trees

Today live Christmas Trees are getting scarce! A headline in the Wall Street Journal (December 2, 2017) “No Tannenbaum! Trees Run Short,” written by Valerie Bauerlein. Many buyers pine for a classic Douglas fir, but weather and agriculture conspire to disappoint. One woman found out that her months-old order was cancelled. Another family soon found out that their favorite choose-and-cut lot in North Carolina was sold out at the end of November!

One family in Kirkland, Washington decided to buy a $10 permit at an outdoor store and cut down their own tree in a federal forest, after getting sticker shock over how high the prices were this year. The Kirkland Washington’s family have five children, so the holidays are expensive already and they are hesitant to spend more than $60 on a tree. That is how they came up with the idea of going to the forest to find one. They thought it would be super fun! Just slap a tree on a sled and drag it back. The mother “… is trying to adjust expectations for her children aged 4 – 18, who were used to picking a Christmas-card worthy tree at a lot with hot cocoa and tractor rides.” In going to the forest to find and cut down their own tree, their expectations were lowered. They quickly realized they would probably get a “Charlie Brown” kind of tree: a lot thinner and spread out.

Man with pine tree and saw — Cutting a Tree from the Christmas Tree Farm

Most growers blame the recession for the scarcity of trees. It takes seven to ten years to grow a tree. Many farmers planted fewer seedlings or went out of business altogether. During this time, the total acreage growing Christmas trees declined 30% from 2001 – 2012. As a result, the average cost of a Christmas tree in 2016 was $74.70 — more than double the average cost in 2011.

In the November/December issue of “Yankee Magazine” is a story about a Vermont Christmas Tree farm, “A Moveable Forest” written by Julia Shipley and Joe Keohane that supplies trees to a Christmas tree lot in Brooklyn, New York.

“A Christmas tree is money,” said Lorrainey Marchessault, “but it is also something religious.” The customers of the Cortelyou Road Christmas tree lot, in Brooklyn are told that they’ll have access to only one-third of the lot this year. There just aren’t that many trees available.

Melody Houle from Vermont, the supplier of trees to this Brooklyn tree lot since 2012 says, about the location “It’s just right. It’s off the street, and the stone on the buildings keep the trees cold. Keeps them hibernating.”

The Brooklyn location, near Ditmas Park, has a robust Jewish population. Many couples that come to the lot are mixed Jewish and Christian. One couple, the husband, who is Jewish is pretty new to the whole Christmas thing, says, “I‘m Jewish, raised Orthodox. So, we’re doing Christmas stuff. Getting a tree, watching Christmas movies, getting tickets to Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall. It’s pretty immersive. But the tree is the center of it all.”

Write About Your Family’s Memories of Christmas Trees

Do you buy your tree at a tree lot or go off into the forest and cut your own? Write about your memories of your Christmas Tree. Where did you buy it? Was that event a big family tradition? Was it something you all look forward to? I remember one year, with my children, we went to a Fred Meyer to pick out our tree with my son who was probably 9 or 10. He had his hands in his pockets and tripped on something. He fell straight down on his face in the lot and broke his tooth! He had to get it capped, what a night! The moral to the story, Don’t walk around the Christmas Tree lot with your hands in your pockets!

November 27, 2017 By Chip Hughes Leave a Comment

The Real Origins of Thanksgiving

The event that Americans commonly call the “First Thanksgiving” was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621. This feast lasted three days, and—as told by attendee Edward Winslow—it was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating “thanksgivings”— days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought.

Virginia Thanksgiving, 1619

However, the arrival in 1619 of 38 English settlers at Berkeley Hundred Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia, concluded with a religious celebration as dictated by the group’s charter from the London Company, which specifically required “that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned … in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.”

Berkeley Hundred was a land grant in 1618 of the Virginia Company of London to Sir William Throckmorton, Sir George Yeardley, George Thorpe, Richard Berkeley, and John Smyth (1567–1641) of Nibley. Smyth was also the historian of the Berkeley group, collecting over 60 documents relating to the settlement of Virginia between 1613 and 1634 which have survived to modern times.

In 1619, the ship Margaret of Bristol, England sailed for Virginia under Captain John Woodliffe and brought thirty-eight settlers to the new Town and Hundred of Berkeley. The London Company proprietors instructed the settlers that “the day of our ships arrival . . . shall be yearly and perpetually kept as a day of Thanksgiving.” The Margaret landed her passengers at Berkeley Hundred on December 4, 1619. The settlers did indeed celebrate a day of “Thanksgiving,” establishing the tradition two years and 17 days before the Pilgrims arrived aboard the Mayflower at Plymouth to establish their Thanksgiving Day in 1621.

Thanksgiving at Plymouth

Several days of Thanksgiving were held in early New England history that have been identified as the “First Thanksgiving,” including Pilgrim holidays in Plymouth in 1621 and 1623, and a Puritan holiday in Boston in 1631. According to historian Jeremy Bangs, director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, “the Pilgrims may have been influenced by watching the annual services of Thanksgiving for the relief of the siege of Leiden in 1574, while they were staying in Leiden.” Now called Oktober Feesten (October Festival), Leiden’s autumn thanksgiving celebration in 1617 was the occasion for a sectarian disturbance that appears to have accelerated the pilgrims’ plans to emigrate to America.

Later in Massachusetts, religious thanksgiving services were declared by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford, who planned the colony’s thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623. The practice of holding an annual harvest festival did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.

Squanto, a Patuxet Native American who resided with the Wampanoag tribe, taught the Pilgrims how to catch eel and grow corn and served as an interpreter for them. Squanto had learned the English language during his enslavement in England. The Wampanoag leader Massasoit had given food to the colonists during the first winter when supplies brought from England were insufficient.

The Pilgrims celebrated at Plymouth for three days after their first harvest in 1621. The exact time is unknown, but James Baker, the Plimoth Plantation vice president of research, stated in 1996, “The event occurred between Sept. 21 and Nov. 11, 1621, with the most likely time being around Michaelmas (Sept. 29), the traditional time.” Seventeenth-century accounts do not identify this as a Thanksgiving observance, rather it followed the harvest. It included 50 persons who were on the Mayflower (all who remained of the 100 who had landed) and 90 Native Americans. The feast was cooked by the four adult Pilgrim women who survived their first winter in the New World (Eleanor Billington, Elizabeth Hopkins, Mary Brewster, and Susanna White), along with young daughters and male and female servants.

painting of Pilgrims and Indians at Thanksgiving table — The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth painted in 1914 by Jennie A. Brownscombe

Two colonists gave personal accounts of the 1621 feast in Plymouth. The Pilgrims, most of whom were Separatists (English Dissenters), are not to be confused with Puritans, who established their own Massachusetts Bay Colony on the Shawmut Peninsula (current day Boston) in 1630. Both groups were strict Calvinists, but differed in their views regarding the Church of England. Puritans wished to remain in the Anglican Church and reform it, while the Pilgrims wanted complete separation from the church.

William Bradford, in “Of Plymouth Plantation” wrote:

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they can be used (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to the proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.

Edward Winslow, in “Mourt’s Relation” wrote:

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

The Pilgrims held a true Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 following a fast, and a refreshing 14-day rain which resulted in a larger harvest. William DeLoss Love calculates that this thanksgiving was made on Wednesday, July 30, 1623, a day before the arrival of a supply ship with more colonists, but before the fall harvest. In Love’s opinion, this 1623 thanksgiving was significant because the order to recognize the event was from civil authority (Governor Bradford), and not from the church, making it likely the first civil recognition of Thanksgiving in New England.

Referring to the 1623 harvest after the nearly catastrophic drought, Bradford wrote:

And afterwards the Lord sent them such seasonable showers, with interchange of fair warm weather as, through His blessing, caused a fruitful and liberal harvest, to their no small comfort and rejoicing. For which mercy, in time convenient, they also set apart a day of thanksgiving… By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine now God gave them plenty … for which they blessed God. And the effect of their particular planting was well seen, for all had … pretty well … so as any general want or famine had not been amongst them since to this day.

These firsthand accounts do not appear to have contributed to the early development of the holiday. Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation” was not published until the 1850s. While the booklet “Mourt’s Relation” was summarized by other publications without the now-familiar thanksgiving story. By the eighteenth century the original booklet appeared to be lost or forgotten. A copy was rediscovered in Philadelphia in 1820, with the first full reprinting in 1841. In a footnote the editor, Alexander Young, was the first person to identify the 1621 feast as the first Thanksgiving.

traditional first thanksgiving painting — The painting — The First Thanksgiving, 1621 — by American painter, Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863-1930) — The scene depicted here is a romanticized (idealized) version and not historically accurate. The clothing worn by the Pilgrims is incorrect. The Wampanoag did not wear feathered war bonnets, nor would they have been sitting on the ground.

According to historian James Baker, debates over where the “first Thanksgiving” took place on modern American territory are a “tempest in a bean pot.” Jeremy Bang claims, “Local boosters in Virginia, Florida, and Texas promote their own colonists, who (like many people getting off a boat) gave thanks for setting foot again on dry land.” Baker claims, “the American holiday’s true origin was the New England Calvinist Thanksgiving. Never coupled with a Sabbath meeting, the Puritan observances were special days set aside during the week for thanksgiving and praise in response to God’s providence.”

Revolutionary Period

Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until after the American Revolution. During the revolutionary period, political influences affected the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations.

Various proclamations were made by royal governors, John Hancock, General George Washington, and the Continental Congress, each giving thanks to God for events favorable to their causes. As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God.”

Current Thanksgiving Traditions

Thanksgiving is currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. Created by federal legislation in 1941 and has been an annual tradition in the United States by presidential proclamation since 1863 and by state legislation since the Founding Fathers of the United States. Historically, Thanksgiving has traditionally been a celebration of the blessings of the year, including the harvest. What Americans call the “Holiday Season” generally begins with Thanksgiving.

Nevertheless, President John F. Kennedy, in an attempt to strike a compromise between the regional claims, issued Proclamation #3560 on November 5, 1963 stating, “Over three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia and in Massachusetts, far from home in a lonely wilderness, set aside a time of thanksgiving. On the appointed day, they gave reverent thanks for their safety, for the health of their children, for the fertility of their fields, for the love which bound them together and for the faith which united them with their God.”

November 17, 2017 By Chip Hughes Leave a Comment

Remember Your Memories of Fall and Family

This time of the year is magical. The month between Halloween and Thanksgiving is a beautiful time. Christmas is still a ways away, although you might see some Christmas decorations. It’s not winter yet, but there is a chill in the air and the weather is definitely changing. There might be small little skiffs of snow but it does not stay around.

Favorite Fall Memories

Think about your favorite family memories of this time of year:

Raking Leaves

High School football games (we always played on Saturday afternoons)

Visiting apple cider mills and drinking fresh cider and eating apple cider donuts

Playing and hiding in big leaf piles

The smell of burning leaves (I guess you can’t do that now)

Raking Leaves

I remember every Saturday morning my brothers and sisters had to rake the leaves from the big oak tree in our backyard. The leaves were really big and there were so many of them! It took weeks before all the leaves were finally off that tree! I always thought why don’t we wait until all the leaves were down before we raked them, but my Dad wanted it done every week. The leaves were a real pain in the you know what, but the real hassle was the millions (probably not millions but it sure seemed like a million) acorns that had to be gathered up as well.

man with two children putting leaves into wheelbarrow — Father and Children Raking Fall Leaves

After we raked big piles of leaves we used an old blanket that we would rake the leaves on. Then like Santa Claus I hauled the leaves to the street where I made even bigger piles on the street. The neighbors also all had their leaves out on the street and everybody burned them. Every family had at least one metal leaf rake to tend the fire. The big bamboo rakes were the best to rake the leaves, but you had to have a metal rake for the fire. That smell of burning leaves is such a wonderful fall memory for me. My life story would not be complete without the memory of those burning leaves.

piles of leaves between trees at the curb — Autumn Leaves Raked to the Curb

I grew up in New Jersey in the 1960s when we could burn our leaves. All the families along the street were out together, it was such fun.

I have visited my street recently during the fall only to discover that no one is allowed to burn leaves anymore. Everyone still drags their leaves to the street, but now the city has big trucks that suck the leaves up along the curb. It just isn’t the same!

Saturday Football Games

I played on my high school football team and every Saturday we played our games. When my kids were in high school, they played their games on Friday night. For me it just wasn’t the same with games on Friday night. In my case my memories of fall weekends revolved around Saturday afternoon high school football games, and then we always played our final game against our arch rival on Thanksgiving morning, at 10:00. That really seems weird now — playing on Thanksgiving — but that’s what we did.

Did you live near an apple cider mill? We had them in New Jersey. It was so much fun to go and buy gallons of fresh-pressed cider right from the mill in glass gallon jugs. The cider was not pasteurized so if it was not refrigerated it would ferment. These cider mills usually also sold apple cider donuts. They were so good. If you don’t live near a cider mill, it is worth it taking a trip one year to taste fresh cider. It is so good.

sack of donuts, apple and bottle of apple cider — Donut and Apple Cider.

Growing up in New Jersey, hunting was not an activity we took part in, but living here in the west I have learned that it is definitely a family activity. Each area has their own fall traditions.

Your Family Memories

What was unique about the fall season where you lived? Think back on your early fall memories. Write about them. It is fun to think about the good times that should be a part of your family memories and your own life history or story.