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 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) To the best of my recollection, my earliest illness would have been chicken pox. I've seen pictures of my brother and me full of spots. I was immunized pretty well against all of the other typical childhood diseases, so never had measles or mumps, etc. I had colds and such, but I was usually a very healthy boy.
b) The first funeral I attended would have been that of my great grandfather, Clyde J. Wyman Day in 1973. He was the first relative to die after my birth, and I recall going to South Dakota to be at the funeral. I remember him being laid out in the casket for viewing. It was all a bit much, as I was only six years old at the time.
c) I couldn't even begin to pick a favorite book! We had so many, all of the Dr. Seuss, Berenstain Bears, and so on. I was always a voracious reader, too, so even as I grew into elementary school I was always reading books. All of the Danny Dun series, Hardy Boys, and so forth. Plus, I read a lot of non-fiction books, mostly about science.
d) I don't remember having a favorite class in elementary school. Perhaps Reading. We didn't have a separate Science class, or that would have been it, hands down. I do know that I was always on the upper end of the charts, and got bored easily with easy classwork. That sometimes led to problems with teachers who wanted me to keep doing homework for stuff I had already shown I understood.
e) I can't think of a particular favorite toy, as it would have changed through the years as I got new toys. Anything space related would have been at the top of the list. Star Wars stuff. I did play with the little green army men a lot in the back yard. I do still have the teddy bear I had when I was a year old. It's in my baby pictures from that year. It's a bit worn, but still in one piece.
f) We did get swimming lessons at various local swimming pools. I never got to be very good at swimming, and I blame it on lessons one year. We were in lessons at the local college's pool, where the shallow end was 3.5 feet deep. I was about 7 years old, and not 3.5 feet tall! I could not touch bottom. At one point, they made us let go of the wall and try to swim out. Well, not being a good swimmer, and not being able to touch bottom, I panicked, and was sure I was going to drown. I don't even remember how I got back to the side, but that was it for me. No more lessons. Since then, I have never been a big fan of swimming, although I do enjoy snorkeling, and I did take a SCUBA class in college. I also passed the Navy's basic swim requirements, so I guess I can do adequately well.
This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2014 by Daniel G. Dillman
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