Stimulating Memory Sharing

Gathering memories was a frequent topic of several friends at the Family History Center I work at. There was much discussion trying to come up with the right formula for family responsiveness.

It is easy to say ask questions at reunions, family gatherings, visits 

with the older members of the family, but the results are not always what you had hoped for.

I have written several memories on my personal blog most in regards to holidays and many with recipes. It was all my memories. I had asked my husband’s twin to share memories and he would always say, “I don’t remember anything about growing up.” 😉 

Both you and I know that was true, he just wasn’t focused. To experiment, since I was one of the advisers on getting stories over the holidays, I decided to utilize my Facebook page to try and pull in cousins and siblings of my husband’s family to share some of their stories. It didn’t quite turn out the way I had thought, but it did turn out that I filled a need of the Hero’s cousins.

I first shared this…short post and a scrapbook page from the book… 

"Merry Christmas from the Ellsworth Domestic Goddesses.  Many years ago my oldest daughter put together a cook book of recipes from all the Older Ellsworth ladies back in 2001, the great grandmother, great aunt, grandmother, and aunts for Christmas. Kathleen and Ginny, I loved this picture of Mary with Mom. Two lovely Ellsworth ladies. Megan were there recipes from you and Laura in there? Love all ya'all. "

This was some of the responses:

Derrell Hankins: What a lovely idea! Wish I'd have thought of that... about 50 years ago! (not related on this side)

Kathleen Ellsworth Chelette: Thanks Fran 💕(The Hero's cousin, sister of Tom)

Fran Langley Ellsworth: You are welcome Kathleen Love ya

Barbara Thole Taylor: What a treasure! (not related on this side, but they are thinking of doing it for their family now.)

Ginny Ellsworth: Love it! Thanks, Fran! (daughter of Tom, a cousin. She has never seen these.)

Laura Wheatley-Hughes: Wonderful. Thanks for keeping memories alive (daughter of the Hero's sister)

Alta Turner: So cute!

Tom Ellsworth: Love to see the other recipes too! (the Hero's cousin)

Fran Langley Ellsworth” I am making a copy for Laura, will make one for you too.

Tom Ellsworth: Fran Langley Ellsworth Thank you!

Kathleen Ellsworth: Chelette Fran if you're making copies could I put my name in the bunch? Thanks

Fran Langley Ellsworth: Of course. You were in my thoughts. Didn't know if you had gotten one.  <3

Kathleen Ellsworth Chelette: Fran Langley Ellsworth thanks Fran you're an  😇.

This family has not been sharing for some time and now they had something they wanted to keep for a memory. I having 4 books made from mine and a barrier went down for sharing. Also, later my brother-in-law brought it up at a dinner with his sister and we discovered, she had found an original recipe that she had copied wrong for the book. This will be fixed now. 😊

This was the scrapbook page…very simple.

The second event was a “Blog Caroling” prompt from FooteNoteMaven.

I chose to do a cute song my husband had sang to our kids every Christmas. He loved it and after I posted the scrapbook page with the short post, I found my brother-in-law loved it too. When we had our dinner he began remembering all the fun songs they had sung at Christmas as kids and looked them up on YouTube. His sister added what she had remembered. 

This is the Scrapbook Page and the short post:

"When the Hero and I would talk about Christmas plays and our children were in the Church party Manger scenes, he would always break out in song about "The Angel in the Christmas Play". This Christmas song was written in 1949 by Spike Lee.  The Hero would have been about 3 when it first came out. 
Wonder if our children remember the song... Good question."

There were several other posts I made including old group photos of the family that stimulated conversations about when, where they were at the time of the photo and who was doing what at that time.  It was fun seeing the cousins come together across the miles, who have not been together for years, and engage each other with their thoughts as memories. That would not have happened if I had not reached out to them and had given them a visual stimulus.

This was my personal success story this year of extracting fun and personal stories from family. I hope you had a great experience too. 😊

Christmas Brings to Mind...

Christmas brings the thought of aprons to my mind both for gifts and for making delectable 

homemade dishes.

Below is a well worn poem  that has found its way into many email boxes bringing smiles, 

and tears to the reader's eyes.

Grandma's Apron

by Tina Trivett

The strings were tied. It was freshly washed, and maybe even pressed.

For Grandma, it was everyday to choose one when she dressed.

The simple apron that it was, you would never think about;

the things she used it for, that made it look worn out.

She may have used it to hold some wildflowers that she'd found.

Or to hide a crying child's face, when a stranger came around. 

Imagine all the little tears that were wiped with just that cloth.

Or it became a potholder to serve some chicken broth. 

She probably carried kindling to stoke the kitchen fire.

To hold a load of laundry, or to wipe the clothesline wire.

When canning all her vegetables, it was used to wipe her brow.

You never know, she might have used it to shoo flies from the cow.

She might have carried eggs in from the chicken coop outside.

Whatever chore she used it for, she did them all with pride.

When Grandma went to heaven, God said she now could rest.

I'm sure the apron she chose, was her Sunday best.

I miss you Grandma...

I associate aprons with my grandmother who raised 13 children and 2 grandchildren. She 

became a widow when her twins, the last two children, were 2 months old.  At that time she

had 6 children in her home to raise during the depression.  I love her indomitable spirit. 

I wonder if she ever sat and cried into her apron, when facing such daunting odds.  She had 

Always had an apron on for cooking and doing her chores.

All these thoughts started me on a search for information about aprons.  I found that many are 

interested in aprons, in fact, there are many out in the blogosphere that have aprons as their focus. 

This is a great one on the History of Aprons.

I think that Avis Yarbrough was very mistaken when he said in "A History of 1950's Aprons" in 2007

that the apron would never reach popularity like it had in the 1950's.  I go to the fabric store and 

there are a multitude of retro and new apron patterns. One of my favorites is a Daisy Kingdom 

pattern by Simplicity. 

The above apron is reminiscent of an apron pattern in 1912.

In my search about the apron 's historical use, I found a variety of information and many opinions.

 One use, which I knew but had not come to mind, was the leather apron of the blacksmith.  This is a 

fun story from the 1830s that I found when I just put Apron in the search engine on Chronicling 

America. 

I was also fascinatedby the styles of the different eras.  The early 1900's styles were much like my 

favorite pattern above, more of a smock which covered most if not all of the dress. For this part, 

old newspapers were a great source for stories and illustrations.

The work day apron and articles from the Minneapolis Journal 1906

Modern day journalists were not the only ones to have thought the apron was gone.  In 1859, a

journalist for the Edgefield, South Carolina newspaper noted the apron was  "coming back into 

fashion".  I think it is only fashion editors that think that, the every day woman prefers to have and 

apron in the house.

My quest has been a long one. I don't know if I have enlightened anyone, but I have had fun

researching such a nostalgic subject for me.  I was amazed to find out that the bib overall of today, 

was a full fitting bib apron that men wore while working in a shop in the 1700 - 1800's.  

I am in the middle of making aprons for Christmas for the grandchildren for learning to cook.

Thank you for dropping by. Leave a comment about your feelings about aprons if you feel so inclined. 

Merry Christmas! and a Happy New Year!  See you in 2015!