Tuesday, May 16, 2017

WELL SHE DID IT AGAIN

🎕On Sunday, beautiful day for Mother's Day; although a bit chilly earlier in the day, it became very pleasant soon enough.

I had asked for Mother's Day,  new plants to go outside in the flower garden. We picked up some beautiful flowers and hope that my black thumb, like my mom, is turning that good shade of green.  I looked like I knew what I was doing anyways.   I had taken my new garden barrow out, my hoe, shovel and potting soil and proceeded down the hill to collect some plants that I had planted last year and bring them around to the side of the fence where I was going plant the new ones.   Why, I thought it was a great day to plant during that time of day, no idea, but I did anyway. Digging them holes in this red dirt on this land that used to be a rock quarry for the railroad, not easy. But, I finally got them in the ground and grabbed  the water hose to spray my pretty little plants and give them a good bath. 

Well you know I have the knack of doing and getting into things that I should pay attention to, well this time no different . I had put the hose down to grab another handful of potting soil and I stepped back and felt water going up my body, what does this one do...........  Of course, look up to see where the water was coming from only to find that I had stepped on the spray nozzle and it was giving me a bath, ground up. YOU know that is not the whole of the story, instead of taking my foot off the nozzle, I, yes, I grabbed for the hose. It had taken a minute to realize what I had done and politely took my size 8 off that nozzle, wet as a drenched cat, walked calmly up the hill with my barrow in tow hoping  no one saw my little scene.

All I do is shake my head and just smile...  What are you gonna do?  Some days it's just too fun living in my head.   :) 

Thanks------

Monday, May 1, 2017

Find your history

This story goes back over 40 years. My grandmother wanted to know our history and started with a few others, delving into our forefathers. Who are we? Where did we come from? 

Many days at the Lee County Library and many nights of writing letters to perspective relatives, she went all in to this unknown journey.  She had asked me if I wanted to go and help, but what does a young 18-20 year old say; Uh-Noo why do I want to know about the past? Famous last words to a now 50 something, that is dying to know the history of our families.

My grandmother's journey and her extensive research found that we are related to Princess Diana, the Black Prince of England, Pocahontas, a famous Pirate and Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand and also could be related to Edgar Allan Poe amongst others. Well, now this was cool to find out but still, I was not that interested in finding much less helping my dear, tired grandmother unearthing our families history. Long nights and days she had spent and now this was long before any computer or cell phone. Phone calls and letters up the ying yang, trying to find the answers. She had loads of notebooks filled with research and loaned them out frequently. 

By the time she had gotten sick and could not remember to whom she loaned them to, they were gone. After her death, mom had came over to the house and we happened to talk about grandma and her research and she, my mother, asked me if we could find our history..  Now, this happened the year, when computers were coming into homes. I said yes, I can do what I can and see where it leads. I worked for a while, as much as the WWW would or could take me back then and came up with very little and I would report back to my mother and keep going when I found the time; being a mother of 3 and going to school and working 2 jobs was taking up quite a lot of time.

I have picked it up time and again over the years with my mother's side of the family, after her death in 1999 and then as my dad laid dying, he asked if I could find out about his side of the family and I started working on it. Calling family members and writing to them by email has been tedious and a long process that it is very frustrating to tell you that I am only as far as my great grandfather, William A Hankins, bless him, I am struggling to find the answers to this question, Who are We?...   I know we are part Native American, but during my research I found that not only on my Hankins side but the Green side as well, both Green's are native American.  And now it seems that my mother's side her, father, maybe part native American as well.  Great findings, if, if I can find the link to the chain. 

Finding your history is something that shows you not only who you are and where you came from but it also tells you stories, stories of those left behind that give you a sense of feeling that you had gotten hold of something written by a family member over 100 years ago. The news may not always be good but still, it shows you how the years of days gone by was for those living in that period of time.

If you ever wonder who, where and why you are here, check out your history. You may find as I have the 1st President of these United States and the 1st King of Scotland and an Indian Princess may be in your blood as well. 

Go, Seek, Find, Tell your past which can become your children's future. 

Thanks,