Saturday, April 23, 2016

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Share Your Childhood Memories

It's Saturday Night - 
time for more Genealogy Fun! 



Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:


1)  Judy Russell asked six questions in her Keynote address at RootsTech 2014 to determine if audience members knew certain family stories about their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.  She demonstrated very well that family stories are lost within three generations if they are not recorded and passed on to later generations.


2)  This week, I want you to answer Judy's six questions, but about YOUR own life story, not your ancestors.  Here are the questions:

a)  What was your first illness as a child?

b)  What was the first funeral you attended?

c)  What was your favorite book as a child?

d)  What was your favorite class in elementary school?

e)  What was your favorite toy as a child?

f)  Did you learn how to swim, and where did you learn?

3)  Tell us in your own blog post, or in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.

Here are my stories:

a)  The first illness I recall as a child was the chicken pox.  I'm sure that I got it in the first two or three years of school from another classmate, and I passed it to my brother.  I still have a scar on the side of my nose from it.  

b)  The first funeral I attended may have been for my grandfather, Lyle Carringer, in November 1976.  I don't recall an earlier one in the family, or for friends.  I was too young to go to my great-grandmother's funeral in 1952, and my Massachusetts grandmother, who died in 1962, was too far away.

c)  My favorite book as a child was the World Book Encyclopedia.  I read it voraciously just about every day.  My favorite subjects were geography, history and science.  

d)  My favorite class at Brooklyn Elementary School was 4th grade.  Miss Williams was the teacher, and she was very patient and encouraging.  

e)  My favorite toy as a child was my Lionel train set.  My father, brother, and I would play for hours setting up the track through the house, and running at least two engines on it to try to make spectacular crashes.   I spent my allowance money on more train cars.

f)  I learned how to swim in summer 1954 at age 10 at Bass Lake near Yosemite.  That was our first family vacation away from San Diego, and it was memorable not only for swimming in the lake, but also fishing on the lake and buying baseball cards at the park store.  

I have no clue how my parents, or grandparents, or great-grandparents would answer those questions.  At RootsTech, I sat down before the first question was finished!  

I wrote my answers down so that they would be saved somewhere on the Internet and perhaps my children and grandchildren will see them.  When Judy's grand-niece gives a Keynote lecture at RootsTech 2054, my grandchildren will be able to answer some of the questions she might pose as a challenge to the audience!



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Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

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10 comments:

Shirley Ann Rankin said...

a) What was your first illness as a child?
I don't remember which was first, but I had them all: measles, mumps, flu multiple times. The worst was chicken pox, which I got from my brother who was in kindergarten and ran around the house crowing like a chicken, while I was practically on my deathbed. I was 14 and had to miss my graduation from 8th grade.

b) I was in 3rd grade, and my teacher, Sister Mary Stephen, took some of us to the church to observe the funeral of one of her relatives.

c) I read suspense and mystery books.

d) Favorite subject was art.

e) Favorite toy was a stuffed brown teddy bear.

f) I didn't. It wasn't until I was a sophomore that I learned to swim. My coach was great!

Marceline Beem said...

My blog post: http://40th-and-plum.blogspot.com/2016/04/saturday-night-genealogy-fun.html

Amanda said...

I'm here: http://amandaeperrine.blogspot.com/2016/04/sngf-share-your-childhood-memories.html

Lori Thornton said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lori Thornton said...

I haven't participated in a long time, but I've got several posts written today for future posts. I decided to participate tonight! http://familyhistorian.blogspot.com/2016/04/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-23-apr-2016.html

Life Goes On said...

Here is my posting of childhood memories

http://myfamilyrootsrundeep.blogspot.com/2016/04/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-childhood.html

Janice M. Sellers said...

Here's my post:

http://ancestraldiscoveries.blogspot.com/2016/04/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-share-your.html

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

My blog post, a day late:
http://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2016/04/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-share-your.html

cleaverkin said...

I'm a little surprised at the absence on this list of "favorite music". I'm probably giving away my age here, but I'm told that when I was very young, I used to play the "My Fair Lady" soundtrack album over and over. I don't recall doing it myself, but I know all those songs by heart, so it's probably true.

Linda Stufflebean said...

Here is my contribution: http://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2016/04/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-childhood-memories/