19 October 2016

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 19 October 2016


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1. What would you say is your strongest sense?

My vision is not good, so that's not it. Taste is probably normal. I have a high tolerance for pain, so "touch" isn't it.  It would have to be a tie between hearing and smell.  I am extremely sensitive to smells and fragrances often cause me severe headaches and difficulty breathing. They make my lungs burn when I breathe them.  I have trouble hearing on the phone because I can hear the background noises that most people do not pick up on.  Hearing all those noises blurs out what people are saying to me, so I can't hear the actual conversation properly.  It is the same off of the telephone, too. I can hear so many other noises that I often have to ask people to repeat themselves because their voices are wiped out by the background hums.

2. Do you believe in the idea of a 'sixth sense'? Why or why not? 

Yes, I do.  It is the gift of discernment.   I have experienced it many times in my life, most often in the form of dreams, but other ways, too.   I dreamed the genders of all of our babies and those of others, even the pregnancies of other women when they didn't know they were pregnant.   I had a dream one night to get up and check the offender registry.  It was a "Do it NOW!" feeling. I did and found out that one of the guys that had moved in next door was on the offender registry for doing things with a 12 year old girl.   I was given the message about illnesses of various people and was correct. There have been many experiences, too many to list here.   I have learned that if I do not act on them, something bad will happen because I did not listen.   I do my best not to ignore or disregard the messages anymore, no matter how much it may scare me to share the message.  I know it is the Holy Spirit and I need to obey.  People think one is nuts when a conversation starts out, "I had a dream…"

3. When do you most feel like a slave to time? Explain.

Most of the time, I am not a slave to time, but circumstance and normal body needs (sleep, bathroom, meals).  The time that I am most a slave to time is when there are doctor appointments and  other places in the "have to" category.  By nature, I am a night person. I function best staying up all night and sleeping during the day, at most, 6 hours. Any longer than that hurts. But, if there is a 9 o'clock appointment in the City, I have to at least try to sleep at night so I don't fall asleep driving. Those are hard nights and cranky nights because I can't sleep.

4. Have you ever worked in a restaurant? How would you rate the experience? If you could own a restaurant what kind would it be?

No, I have never worked in a restaurant.  However, we had 9 people living in our house at one time for about 10 years.   That isn't exactly like working in a restaurant, but I imagine cooking for them all and cleaning up after meals is coming pretty close!

I have often thought of having a restaurant of some sort, but generally sit down until the feeling passes.  If I were to have one, I think it would be interesting to have a tea room or a pizza parlor or, maybe, an ice cream parlor that also sold other things.

5. Ever traced your family tree? Share something interesting you learned there.

This question made me laugh!  Have I ever!!!  YES!  I have spent the last 37 years researching my family tree and history as well as those of a few other people.  It is my passion, my life's work.

One interesting (to me, anyway) family story that I have is my 3rd Great-grandpa Frith didn't want his daughter Josephine to marry Robert Black.  She was 17 and he was 38 years old in 1869.  I have no clue why Grandpa Frith didn't want them to marry, unless it was the extreme age difference.  Anyway, as I understand it, they got married on a boat in the middle of the lake.  I guess they figured Grandpa Frith's gun couldn't shoot that far!   As I understand it, he ultimately disowned her for this marriage. I have no documentation either way on this.  One thing about researching family history and lore is that questions may get answered, but they lead to about 20 times more questions!

6. What did your childhood bedroom look like?

There are only two that I remember.  One was in the house at 508 Wellington Street, Anderson, South Carolina.  My parents had four children and a two bedroom house.  Of course, they needed one of the bedrooms.   Daddy put a partition wall through the middle of the other bedroom.  The boys had one side and the walls were dark blue.  They had a set a bunkbeds and one chest of drawers.   On our side, to start with, there was a double bed.   Later, we got bunkbeds, too.  We also had a dresser with a mirror and a chest of drawers.  The chest sat at the foot of the beds between the beds and the door.  The dresser sat up against the side of the beds so that I could use it as a ladder to the top bunk.  Our walls were pink.  There was a doorway, but not a door, between our side and the boys' side of the room.  It had wooden floors and was in an old mill house.   It was great!

The next room, which was the last room that I occupied in my parents' home, was not much bigger than a standard walk-in closet.  Again, I shared the room with my sister.  The room was about as long as our bunkbeds, with just a little space left over between the beds and the wall.  The walls were paneled. The dresser was in there, still to the side of the bed, but along the wall rather than right beside the bed.   I was still able to use it to get up to the top bunk because it was only about a foot away from the bed.  There was also a built-in wardrobe with two drawers under it.  The room was at most 8 feet by 7 feet. Very small, but we made do.  This room was in a mobile home.  This mobile home was maybe 10 feet wide by 56 feet long. It was very small, but we lived in the woods and spent most of the time outside anyway.   It got blown away by a tornado, with my daddy still in it, at some point after we moved here to Texas.  Daddy survived that experience, praise the Lord!

7. Anyone who knows me knows I love_______________________?

Anyone who knows me knows that I love genealogy and photography would be close behind it.   I could talk all day long, to the chagrin of many folks, about genealogy and family history research.

Tell your stories, folks, before you are no longer around to tell them.  Get them from your parents and grandparents, too.  Don't leave your children with the same questions that you have had regarding those that have gone on before you.  Don't say, "I'll do that later."   You may not have a "later".  Do it now!  Start with the questions that you would love to ask your forefathers and foremothers.  For ideas on other questions, there are websites all over the place with suggestions about questions for this type of journaling.  However you have to do it, just do it!

Here is just one of many sites with questions to ask your loved ones while you still can: 37 Questions to Ask Your Grandparents (and Parents!)

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

I wish that I had paid more attention to my grandparents' stories when I was a little girl.  Though I saw them often, I wish that I had made more time for them once I became an adult.   Cherish the time you have left with those you love.  You never know when the end will come for either of you and it will be too late.  Whenever anyone passes away, their stories go with them if no one has taken the time to record them in some way, be that on paper or video or audio tape.  It may not seem important now, but believe me, it will be important to someone down the road.

Please visit David over at Random Thoughts and Observations.

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24 comments:

  1. Enjoyed your answers. I definitely wish I had asked more questions of my grandparents (unfortunately some I never knew and other died when I was still quite young) and also my own parents.

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    1. Thank you, Wendy. I am sorry that you have lost these loved ones already.

      Are you going to answer those same questions, from your own point of view, so that your children won't have those same questions later? I sure hope so. :)

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a blessed day!

      Delete
  2. Yes, I remember our large feedings. When a 20 pound bag of potatoes was a single serving and it took two packs of hot dogs per meal. Life is more simple now, thank goodness.

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    1. More simple in some ways and more complicated in others. I am thankful, too, for the more simple life.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a blessed day, my Zing. :)

      Delete
  3. I'm thankful for every minute I spent with my grandparents soaking up all their stories from the past.

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    1. I am glad that you were able to spend time with your grandparents and that they shared stories with you, too. What special memories. :)

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a blessed day!

      Delete
  4. Interesting ggg grandpa story!! And a good admonition to us all to tell or write the stories now, before it's too late.

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    1. Thank you! I just hope that everyone will do it. Life is too full of "I should haves". This shouldn't be one of them. We should just do it. :)

      I thought that it was a pretty cool story when I came across it. I wish I could have been there to see it!

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a blessed day!

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  5. I truly regret not asking more questions of my parents and grandparents. I will still have a question and say: Oh I should ask Mom!

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    1. I've been there, too! It doesn't happen so much anymore, but it was really bad for about the first year after each death. Sometimes I would even get to the phone, have my hand on it before it hit me, "Oh yeah...". It is a hard realization.

      I understand your regret very much.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a blessed day!

      Delete
  6. I could have guessed your answer to #5 from your blog header : ) I wish I'd asked my grandparents more questions. When we have them with us we're often too young to appreciate that, and when we're old enough to realize it they've gone. One thing I enjoy about blogging is the recording of stories for my family. I have mine bound into books periodically.

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    1. It's that obvious, huh? haha

      I think that blogging is a good way to share our family stories and pictures. I also think having them bound into books is a great idea. :)

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a blessed day!

      Delete
  7. Such knowledge can be passed on from our Grandparents - sometimes they can be ignored. I agree that it's so important to ask them to tell their stories and share their memories. It's something you'll nave regret! Have a great day! Fun reading your Hodgepodge today, thank you!

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    1. We need to be sure to train our children to listen attentively to their elders. It is a valuable asset, and not just for family history, but life in general. The elders know so much more than we could ever fathom.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a blessed day!

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  8. Love! Love ! Love! the story of the wedding on a boat. I loved your blog header too.

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    1. Thank you! I wish that I could have been at that wedding or at least on the banks of the river where maybe I could see both sides of this wedding. :)

      Thank you for the compliment on my blog header, too. I need to do some fine tuning on the color. I had intended the color to be the same in the header and the navigation grid, but I can't seem to get it to match properly. I will get it eventually. I love that my cousin gave me a photo of my great-grandmother Annie Black Gunter. She is the daughter of the couple that got married in the boat. :)

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a blessed day!

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  9. I too wish I had asked more questions when the loved ones were still here. I did try to get my mom to tape record storied. I gave her a mic and recorder, but she just didn't have the strength for story about the wedding.

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    1. I'm sorry that your mama didn't have the strength to record the story. That is sad. Have you recorded (written or otherwise) what you know about her story?

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a blessed day!

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  10. You do these really well. I hope to join in here sometime!

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    1. Thank you, Annie. I hope that you will join in. :)

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a blessed day!

      Delete
  11. I didn't realize you had been researching your family tree for so long. Do you find it easier with the internet now than without when you started?

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    1. There are some things that are easier and most definitely cheaper today, but the old way was a far more interesting adventure. There's nothing quite like driving through the backwoods looking for this cemetery or that one, trapsing through a cemetery, reading stone after stone, or going through the books and records in local history rooms, courthouses, and libraries.

      The Internet helps to get the information cheaper and quicker but being in the field is the way that makes the memories. :)

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a blessed day!

      Delete
  12. With my COPD/asthma I am sensitive to smells too....especially colognes!! That is very interesting on your sixth sense. How wonderful that you have been doing your ancestry for so many years. Important reminder in your random thought.....

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    1. Looks like we're on this COPD/asthma road together. I hope that you will be okay. Sometimes it seems like other folks are bent on making it difficult for us to breathe. It is like they put on the whole bottle of cologne/perfume, like they went swimming in it.

      I believe it to be a gift of discernment from the Holy Spirit. It has been a lifesaver, when I have had sense enough to listen and obey.

      It feels like I have been working on my family tree my whole life. I have had to start over several times due to theft as well as hard-drive failure, which has been very frustrating, but it is a fun adventure even when frustrating things happen along the way. I am absolutely enjoying newspapers.com. I have found so many articles and obituaries for family members, as well as interesting articles that have absolutely nothing to do with our family, like the one about the woman that woke up at her own funeral. That was both hilarious and terrifying!

      I hope that my reminder prompts many people to take down the stories before it is too late.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a blessed Sunday!

      Delete

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