Family Legacy

I'm on a big family vacation this week with my parents, sister, aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandmother. Last night we had cake to celebrate my grandmother's ninetieth birthday, then we sat around the table asking her questions about the nine decades of her life so far. Some of the stories and observations were new, stories I hadn't heard before. Others were stories so familiar to me that I found myself reciting them in my head in unison with my grandma's voice. I'll probably repeat them someday to my own kids or nephews and nieces.

As I listened to my grandmother's stories, and my family's reminiscences about her, I noticed some themes that stand out in our family legacy. First, our family travels. My grandma's family traveled all over the U.S. Even in the 1930s, when travel was much less common, her family traveled all across the country, from Illinois to New York to Florida. I can't imagine going so far when speed limits were 35 miles per hour, but that's exactly what they did. So, she was simply repeating her own parents' words when she nagged me and my sister to look out the windows of the car instead of reading as we drove around the West.

Another thing that popped out in my mind was education. My grandmother, even as a in the late 1930s and early 1940s completed her bachelors degree. She met my grandfather at the alumni club from their college. Their children and grandchildren carried on that legacy, all of us have completed our undergraduate degrees, and several of us have even further education than that. My grandfather was a teacher for the Navy and the Air Force, and my father and sister both became college professors. My grandmother educated girls through the Girl Scouts, and my aunt now arranges educational opportunities through the Girl Scouts.

But the thing that probably sticks out most in my mind is playing games. Every time my family gets together, we play card games and board games. We're all pretty competitive, but we also never take the games too seriously. Some of my best memories of my family are of laughing around the table with cards in our hands. My grandmother told stories about Bridge and Confusion. My mother talked about accidentally insulting her new mother-in-law's age over a game of cards. My aunt reminisced about her father making a game board for Cutthroat.

So, this week my family traveled to the mountains. We celebrated my graduation and my grandmother's birthday. We played games and laughed. This is my family.