~My Life~

This is a picture of my mother's mom, the one I was named after, she was born in 1900 and I think she was 16 here, at the bottom of the picture you can see the pansies that her parents raised and sold...mom always loved pansy's:) She passed away at the age of 46 of a cerebral hemorrhage. Gee, notice the long dress? She had red hair and blue eyes, she met an Irishman named Danial Tolen boy, I bet there were fireworks over that one!

Good Morning friends:)

It's Tuesday and time for the family history project:) BTW I love doing this...it makes you think if you know what I mean:) ~ If you want to join in you can, just go to Julie's Tattered Threads and Willing Hands and sign up with Mr Linky!

This week's project is a little hard for me because I never really knew either set of grandparents...something I've always regretted in my life. I never had that special feeling the grandchildren feel or have knowing that your mom and dad's parents thought you were the best ever! I'm sure this has effected me somehow but I just don't know how, so I'll answer the questions as best that I can, okay?

1. Was yours a religious family? Not when I was little but I was baptized Catholic. When Michele was born we baptized her Russian Orthodox... before that my dad had went back to the religion he was raised with and so did I. I would take my kids every Sunday they were all baptized and confirmed Russian Orthodox and my oldest son Nick was married in the church and still attends with his wife and Alex.

Were Sunday's spent together with family? My mom's mother died when my mom was in her 20's and her dad died when I was about 4 or 5, I only remember seeing him once and my mom looked just like him. I think there was bad feelings with my parents and him.

2. Did your family take vacations? Yes, we would go camping, my dad was an avid hunter and fisherman, we would go to the Allegheny River with other families and have such a good time, I would sleep in the brand new Chevy station wagon on air mattresses ( remember now this was in the 50's ) I think my parents slept in a tent or I slept with my mom and my dad and brother Mike slept in the tent:) You see my parents had what you might say two sets of kids...Dave and Judy were born before WWII and Mike and I were born after so there was four years where my dad was gone. My older brother and sister were either married or had jobs where they couldn't go with us. We went every summer and would stay for weeks!

3. Do you remember any special stories your grandparents told you? Did you sit on a lap when you heard these stories or did you hear them when you and your grandparent would walk hand-in-hand, taking a stroll? Do you tell any of these same stories to your children? Sadly no!

4. Did your grandparents live nearby? My dad's mom lived near but she didn't speak

English only Russian, I remember my dad trying to talk to her, trying to remember the words in Russian, he could understand her but he had gotten away from speaking it. She wasn't a grandmotherly type or maybe she wasn't allowed to be...it was rumored that she liked to tip the vodka bottle to much:) My dad was one of seven and poor, his dad died when he was 16, dad only got to go to the 8th grade then had to go to work in the mill here (where my husband lost his job) but back then it was booming. My dad was very smart and I think it bothered him that he couldn't have graduated and went on to be something more. So I don't think there was good feelings between his mother and him...it was the 50's and you just didn't talk about things like you do now.

Back then in Pennsylvania during the 30's, 40's and 50's you were separated, so to speak, by your heritage...dad was Russian...mom was English and back then you just didn't do that, so I think there was bad feelings on both sides about them being together...how sad and how stupid!!! But that's the way it was back then, I do know one thing they loved me very much, maybe they tried to make up for us not having any grandparents, I really don't know, I do know

...Christmas's was so much fun, dad loved Christmas and always shopped with mom, oh, how he loved to shop, I've never found a man like that.LOL I think he loved it because he had been so poor and didn't want us ever to feel that way.

Well, that's it, I could write so much more but we would be here all day... and I think this is why I really try to be the best Grammy in the world because I missed all of that and I want them to feel that special kind of love that can only come from grandparents:)