With each article I peruse, in the many publications designed to support the over 50 crowd, I wonder why the “50’s” have become the operative and chic number and not “over 60” or “over 70”.
When I started this website, my intent was to entice stories, thoughts, and creativity from ALL generations over 50 without a cap or limit on age….and then I thought about it….there aren’t as many over the age of 60, 70, or 80 who are as computer savvy as we youngsters—it’s all relative, isn’t it?—in our 50s—although it seems I am quickly approaching the next decade. Therefore, I implore you younger folks (in your 50s), to become the transcribers and storytellers for the older decades and send me their stories in addition to yours!
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It was so often that our family, who was never at a loss for words, would sit around the kitchen table until the “wee hours” of the morning telling family stories which both invoked sadness and laughter. We debated the issues of the time, everyone opened up feeling there was safety in numbers (the extended family), and there were no repercussions from our revelations that night!
We all spoke of making sure we documented our ‘history’ for the future generations. We said, “We can tape Bubby (grandma) and Zaide (grandpa) so we don’t miss anything”. But of course, we never did…and then they passed away, first Bubby and then a month later Zaide.
The discussions continued. Their eldest child (my aunt) remembered many of their stories….let’s get HER to write them down…we don’t want to lose our family’s history….sadly, although she is still around physically, her cognitive abilities have diminished too far to tell our family history.
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When my mother turned 80, her three children (yes, I am one of them) put on the surprise birthday party of the decade for her. We went to the website www.ellisisland.org to get the ships’ manifests that showed my grandparents (her parents) coming to this country. We got photos of those ships, we took their engagement photo and then put together a beautifully framed and matted collage with this small segment of our family’s history….there was not a dry eye at the party when my brother presented it to my Mom and my brother could not speak because of his own tears and emotions.
There is so much to tell and document, and so much to learn, and I live with the regret of not documenting my own grandparents’ life stories. Perhaps this is my way of committing my small piece of history to the records.
I implore you to write about your life experiences now, so your family has a history!
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