Ask your parents for their stories

Your parents and grandparents – their histories are likely fascinating

Believe me – talk to your parents and grandparents about their stories and history, their recipes, their memories. They have seen history all around them. Ask your parents for their stories.

Even I, at my age, saw a very different world. My own memories show a huge technological advance. It is part of history.

I was around with black and white TV, having to hold the “rabbit ears” antenna in certain contortions to get reception. I saw color TV when it first came out. There were more TV stations added over the years to the seemingly unlimited amount now.

Radio was important, and we taped songs from the radio so we could listen to them any time. This was an important way to get national and local news. KOA was a lifeline. We listened to radio theater with continuing stories you had to tune back in for, much like we watch shows with weekly updates you need to see to keep up.

News was trusted – as Walter Cronkite said, “just the facts” – I don’t understand the “alternate facts” and research and I research what I see and hear before believing what is on TV or social media. Don’t take one person’s version as gospel truth – look at who it benefits – unlikely the whole population but mostly that person.

We had party line phones – shared between a few houses – a call rang at everyone’s home until someone answered but might not be the person the call was for. It wasn’t very private to talk as you can be listened to if another home picked up the phone.

Hatred was rarer – but still happened. We were a family of Finnish people – my parents immigrated to the US as teenagers and met in New York. When we lived in one house, the next-door neighbor was 2nd generation German and claimed that Germans and Finns were mortal enemies. We do not know how or why he got this hatred, but he acted out on it. He worked for the phone company and put a bug on our phone after we got a private line and no longer a party line (you could hear him telling his kids, by name, to “shut up”). He tried to push our property line further into our yard, but my dad had the property map that proved the property line. When I moved to the basement, he and his boys made rock-filled snowballs and threw them at my window in the middle of the night. I’m lucky the window didn’t break. I am sure many more issues took place that I never knew about. I did not understand how undeserved hate could be so awful.

But I see a lot of it in society now - hatred for no real reason.. There were kids who were bullied or shunned in school – I made it a point to have lunch with them and even shared my lunch when the other kid didn’t have much in his.

There was no Internet. – we used encyclopedias to study and write papers from, along with printed books, magazines, newspapers, and such.

We didn’t shop daily – store trips were a big deal, usually after a payday. We did not get “anything we wanted” – we had to be restrained in asking and made do with what we had. Playing with other kids often showed us different toys to play with.

We played board games – not online ones, and not to the extent of constant playing (when the game was won by someone, time to figure next thing to do). We made up games, especially outside ones. Who heard the train coming first? Racing critters, hide and seek, tying the dog to the wagon for a ride (which turned out crazy), rock toss, and much more. Not all were safe, but we survived them, even when a rock hit my eye and I had to get emergency treatment with a patch on for a week).

We did not have a phone at all to carry with us. If we didn’t come back in time, the calls on the phone were to the neighbors or parents or yelling your name out into the streets.Most of the time, we had to tell the friend’s parents the time we were supposed to get home so they would remind us, or Mom would call and tell them.

If we needed a babysitter and no one could help, Mom could call the high school and they would let the babysitter out of class to go babysit.

There were door to door salesmen of all sorts – an accordion salesman even came to our house. I started selling pens and stationary door to door as a kid. I got a catalog by mailing in for it, took orders and sent in the money to get the orders and then delivered them. I set up a mini library in the house and let friends check books out.

I know my parents came to the US on boats across the ocean, which took a long time. I love their stories of growing up and living in their time. They did not have TVs – imagination ruled in keeping occupied. They both told stories of the farms, their siblings, their parents, living in the city, then immigrating and living here in early days. My grandmother on my dad’s side cooked for the DuPonts and Rockefellers. His father was a talented wood worker. My grandfather had a ticket for the Titanic and lost it in a card game. There are at least 2 other people who lost their theirs in card games as well.

The history and stories are incredible – just ask your parents for their stories plus your grandparents (and great-grandparents if lucky enough). The memories, histories and lessons of the past help guide the future, and they are fascinating as well. Even my more recent history has seen so much.