Over Thanksgiving I went to Florida with my Welsh friend to visit my parents and grandma. Nanny (my grandma) was telling us stories about how her first job out of high school was at the FBI as a clerk and about her German grandparents.
My friend was amazed at how recently my mom’s family came over to America. We also talked about how my dad’s family is old school, Mayflower Americans meets Taiwan. They served sweet and sour possum at family dinners. 😉
It reminded me of a New Year’s resolution of mine from 2012 (found here) to create a podcast of family stories.
An excerpt from that resolution:
This one should be fun. Ever listen to stories from your grandparents and just wish they would shut up? Well, this is not a podcast for you. Sometimes my grandpa tells the silliest of stories.
Example: His parents are straight from Germany and a little old school. His dad (my great-grandfather) made him take accordion lessons. Well, Poppy (my grandfather) was a bit of a problem child. He hated the lessons, especially walking there with the 30 lb. instrument. One fateful afternoon, he figured out a way to get out of lessons forever: poke holes in the bellows. So he did. Boy did he get in trouble. His dad made sure he’d never make that mistake again.
I never followed through with this one. My grandfather passed away in November of 2012 before I could work up the courage to begin this project. His eulogy can be found here.
In 10th grade lit class I interviewed my grandparents (and my father about his parents) about their lives. This ultimately is the inspiration behind this project. I had a blast recording and splicing the different interviews together. I’ve included that project below. It’s not as thorough as I remember but it’s still a fun memory. Take a listen.
I spent a few minutes throwing together a rough family tree. It shows what I call each member of my immediate family (I left out cousins, aunts/uncles due to space restrictions) and where they were born. It only goes 3 generations.
My great grandfather’s (Burril Fuller)autobiography can be found here on my dad’s blog. It’s long but a great read. Wait until you get to the part where he accidentally burns down the barn. Talk about a barn burner!
In the coming months I plan to begin interviewing my grandmothers, as both grandfathers have passed, to document some of their stories for my grandkids. This time I won’t dilly dally. Thanks for sharing these memories with me.