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March 17, 2005
Irish Eyes Are Smiling
I haven't a photo of my Irish great-great grandmother, but here's one of her son, my great-grandfather. And a fine, strappin' young boy-o he was too. The photo was taken on the day of his marriage to my great-grandmother, a half-breed Cherokee. (Not that that's not fairly obvious or anything. She'd made the blanket hanging behind them, according to my mother anyway. But Grandma's another story for another time.) The little boy in the photo is my great-grandfather's little brother BTW, my great-great uncle Prinder....who was well-known in the family for telling whopping tall tales.
Here's another photo taken years later before Great-Grandpa passed away. I don't remember him at all, but I do have a few memories of Great-Grandma. We visited her in Washington state when I was three. What I remember best was her laugh, and the way her whole face would light up when she smiled. And I remember her house was a happy place, with lots of laughter and music. My grandfather's many brothers all lived nearby, and they were all mechanical & electronic geniuses.....and could play just about any musical instrument you put in front of them.
They'd set up a recording studio in one of the spare bedrooms, and made a 78 record of my sister & myself talking and singing while we were there. I remember sitting on the bed while they made the recording, and I kept getting into trouble because I was bouncing on the bed as I was too excited to sit still. I also remember singing something, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" I think it was, and stopping halfway through to ask my sister to hold my chewing gum....which cracked my great-uncles up.
It's hard to imagine all the changes they saw in the world during their lives. My mother tells the story of how one of my great-uncles would always pull back on the steering wheel of the car when he slowed down.....because he'd driven a team & wagon so long he never lost the habit of pulling on the reins to stop. I don't remember that, but I do remember that this great-uncle was the bean eating-est man I ever saw. He insisted on having beans in some form at every meal, even at breakfast. He used to come down & visit my grandpa at Christmas some years, and oh! The tales they would tell, one right after another until everyone was in tears from laughing so hard. I wish I could remember some of them.
So I suppose it's not too surprising I turned out to be a lawyer, blogger and geek as well. I come it by naturally.
I'm not sorry I missed out on the red hair.....though I could've done without the freckles as well.
Posted by Rita at March 17, 2005 01:31 PM