I’ve written about my early school years. See here and here and here. By the time I reached fifth grade, I’d been there since the start of second grade, and I was likely to remain there through eighth grade. I knew where I stood. I’d survived the double names of […]
Continue readingTag Archives: grandfather
My Son’s First Birthday Party
Today my son turns thirty-seven. As I’ve been going through boxes, trying to declutter, I found some pictures of his first birthday party. Obviously, I would never throw these pictures out. In fact, I find it very hard to throw out any pictures. Finding these snapshots completely stopped my decluttering […]
Continue readingMy Great-Grandmother Ada Jane Lewis Hooker: Was the Clock Hers or Not?
My maternal grandfather’s mother, Ada Jane Lewis Hooker, died when my grandfather was still a child. My grandfather died when I was not quite ten, before I started asking any stories about prior generations. In addition, sons don’t talk much about their mothers and my grandfather was a taciturn man. […]
Continue readingA Belated Veterans Day Post
It seems that in over five years of writing this blog, I have never written about Veterans Day. This year, I am finally doing it, albeit a couple of days late. I never expected to be part of a military family. I didn’t have any veterans among my relatives. Neither […]
Continue readingThe Summer of ’64: Pacific Grove
I’ve mentioned spending summers with my grandparents in Pacific Grove, California. It seemed like I spent several idyllic summers there, but there really weren’t that many. Only twice did my brother and I spend long vacations with our grandparents. In 1963 we spent a month there, but our mother was […]
Continue readingNo More Libby Jacksons
My kids and their cousins often visited their mutual grandparents (my in-laws) when they were children. When it was time to leave, my father-in-law would call them aside and hand them each a $20 bill. I told my children not to expect Grandpa’s generosity and to thank him when it […]
Continue readingMy Grandfather’s Clock as a Metaphor for Grief
I’ve written before about my grandfather’s clock—how it formed a part of my childhood, first in my grandparents’ home and then in my parents’; how I deliberately let it wind down after my father died; how I shipped to to my house and got it working again. (see here and […]
Continue readingRetelling Tales: My Grandfather the Salesman
I’ve written before that my paternal grandfather, Laverne Ernst Claudson, was the grandparent I knew the least. Both of my grandmothers overshadowed their husbands in my young life, and I spent more time with my maternal grandparents as a child than I did my father’s parents, so I never felt […]
Continue readingMy Grandfather’s Clock, My Memory, and the Passing of Generations
I’ve written before about my grandfather’s clock. It is now ticking away in my house, after two service calls from a local firm that repairs antique clocks. The clock worked after the first service call, but just a few days later my husband and I left town for two weeks. […]
Continue readingDaddy’s Date . . . No, Make that Grandpa’s Date!
The church where my sister was married had a very firm rule that any children who were members of the wedding party had to be at least five. My son, at age six, qualified to be a ring bearer. My daughter, who would turn three just days before the wedding, […]
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