Sunday, February 28, 2010

Memories for my son

I was speaking with my father, who is now retired, and we were discussing different things he could do to keep busy in the winter months, when he is stuck inside due to the poor weather. Some how or another, we got side tracked, and he started to tell me about how he and my late uncle would go on Mondays, when our family business was closed, to their gun club for shooting practice and this led to other memories. As he was recalling some of his adventures, I realized that there is so little that I know about his life, especially as a child. I had given him a book, years ago, on Father's Day, which was titled something like "A Father's Memories". It is a journal type book that has questions that prompts you to write down various events in your life. My dad said that he "was not a writer, that he wouldn't know what to write". Personally, I just want any link into his past, I don't care about the grammar or the spelling. I want the history.
After getting off the phone with him, I went to file some papers and I found one of those same books on MY bookshelf. I did not even realize I had one.
Mine is organized by months, with the idea that you write down one memory per day. Some of the prompts are rather silly, like "When did you get your first bible? Who gave it to you?" , others are more along the line of the memories I would like to record, like "What is one of your favorite memories of your sibling/s?"
Since I saw this as a hint from powers greater than me, I sat down and wrote, and wrote, and wrote. I did about a months worth of memories. I want my son to have my history, to have the answers to those silly questions that I might not recall later on in life. It is also a good tool for my nephew, since many of memories are tied into memories with his mother (my twin). I'm hoping that I continue to fill it out, for his sake.

1 comment:

Envoy-ette said...

He will treasure it! I suppose that's why I keep my blog going. My kids will one day see how I viewed them.