I love visiting my parents. Every time I go, not only do my son and I have fun with them in the present time, I also learn a little more about my early years as well as my family history. I just returned from a two day visit to my parents’ house, during which we created some special memories for me and my son. This trip to visit my parents illustrates an important point – there really is no end to the amount of fun and interesting things that a person can discover about their family history even by making no specific effort to do so other than by spending time with their relatives.
My son took his first trip to an indoor play and discovery center with my parents, and he had a great time. We also went to a brand new grocery store all together to see what all of the fuss was about. The place was insanely packed full of people, but we enjoyed the craziness of it all, all together. My son also got to spend some quality time with his grandfather, being outdoors and playing with tools. Excuse me, I mean working with tools – you see, my son is quite the little worker and likes to do things that resemble work more than play. It is not something that we taught him to do – it is just something that gives him so much joy. Whomever made up that line about “all work and no play….” certainly never met anyone like Dylan. Both of his grandfathers have noticed this trait in him and enjoy helping him find things that he can “work” on. These are the kinds of things that I will tell him about when he is older, as I explain his family history.
I also picked up a couple of tidbits of information about my family history. For example, I learned that way back when, some of my Irish ancestors on my dad’s side of the family raised cattle. I also learned that my maternal grandmother and maternal grandfather took a honeymoon in their home state of Massachusetts, on the Mohawk trail. As I inquired further (because I had not heard previously that my grandparents enjoyed hiking), I learned that the Mohawk Trail was not a hiking trail. It is the first scenic road in New England, and it opened in 1914, long before my grandparents’ honeymoon. The Mohawk Trail is located in Western Massachusetts, and we were out that way driving around when my mother decided to tell me about that little family fact.
Photo by kconnors on morguefile.com.