My Early Years...

I was born in Chicago on the 3rd day of the 3rd month.  Additionally, I was born on the 3rd planet from the Sun.  Bingo!  Numbers.  I've long had a thing for numbers.  I enjoy number patterns.  I like to play with numbers.  I enjoy math.  Numbers.  Math.  It's all around us.  I've often thought if we taught math in "real world terms," fewer folks would dislike math as much as they do.  Maybe.  Maybe not.

 

This is me at about 2 or 3 months old.  My mother was, I think, 22 years old at the time.

 

 From The Beginning...

Where to start?  How 'bout the beginning.  Hmmm.  The beginning of what?  I know.  It shouldn't be so difficult.  However, I've lived a long and complex Life.  (Almost 76 years.)  When I think of my past, I break it into segments.  Periods of time that I can define by events in my Life.

So, I may write a bit about something that happened in my early childhood, or I may write about my teens, twenties, or whatever comes to mind.  I have much to pass along to family.  I'll define a segment by the era.  By the approximate years in which the events took place.  

This isn't much for now but it's the best I can do at the moment.  I'm just getting over Influenza A.  Not a fun time.  However, now that I'm "on the mend" it doesn't seem so bad.  It's all relative.  I've been through worse in the past.  Life is like that.  It has its ups and downs.  Its highs and lows.  How would we know how good we have it if we never experienced a bad spell?  

I guess that's how I know I have it good now.  Life is Good.  I've been through a number of rough times.  Some not so bad.  Some waaaay bad.  However, I'm a survivor.  I'll get into the details soon.  My goal at this point is to write a bit every day or two or three.  I know. A lofty goal but I gotta start somewhere. 

I'll be adding photos soon.  Some old and some new.  A frozen moment in Time.  Oddly, many of my memories, back to the age of about 2, are like "flash bulb glimpses" into my past.  I have very vivid memories.  Now, I need to figure out how to put them in writing.  Yeah, right.  I grew up thinking I was more scientist than writer.  My problem is having more ideas than I can clearly write for others to understand.  I'm a tangential thinker so I tend to meander.  Stick around long enough and you may pick up a thread you can understand or relate to.  If anyone other than my family reads this, my hope is to let others know they aren't alone in what they're going through or what they've been through.  Yes, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Yeah, sometimes it may be a fast moving train headed your way.  But, then again, it may just be a Shining Light!  A Guiding Light to illuminate your way forward.

Until next time.

 

 

 I'm still here....alive and kicking.  Life goes on.  Life continues to get in my way of writing.  However, I still plan to write my "life story" some day.  Why?  I have much to pass onto my daughter.  She missed many years with me.  I'm not going into that now.  I'll get to it later.  I've been hesitant to write what needs to be written.  Some feelings will get hurt but how else can you make an omelet?

 

My story.  I've played around with various titles over the years.  I'm not an author.  I'm not a writer.   Who cares about my story? Good question.  I don't expect anyone to show must interest.  This is for me and for my family.  Specifically my daughter.  Hopefully I'll get it done before the end of my days.  I plan to write without much editing along the way.  If I stop to correct or agonize over everything I write, I'll never get it done.

 

My story.  What will I call it?  I think it's working title, for now, will be MEMOIRS OF AN AMATEUR.  I kind of borrowed the idea from Oscar Levant.  As a teen, I saw a movie about George Gershwin.  Love his music.  Oscar Levant played himself in the movie.  A while later, I read a book, The Memoirs of an Amnesiac. It was Levant's story.  He wrote about his Life.  His neuroses.  I remember that well.  Anyway, the title stuck with me all these years (about 60).

 

So, check back from time to time (if you're so inclined) and look for snippets from the life of an amateur.  Not interested?  Hey, if nothing else, it may be a cure from insomnia....zzzzzzzzzzz.

A Transplant but with Roots!

 This truly is an amazing World, if we choose to see it that way.  I like to approach Life with my eyes wide open.  I don't want to miss any of its wonders.  Eyes wide open.  Mind wide open.  Don't miss a thing (hopefully). 

I was born and raised in Chicago.  (I'm getting to my "small world" point in a minute.)  In 1975, at the age of 26, I moved to Sacramento California.  When I was about 30 years old, I started college, primarily for classes to further my career, but it transformed into a love of learning.  I took classes for the better part of 30+ years.  Although I'm on hiatus now, I still grab a webinar, online class or in person class whenever I can.

In the early 1980s, my Humanities professor, Dr David Warren at Sacramento City College, assigned a family tree for the class.  That was the start of my family tree and I've been working on it, on and off, ever since.  I've had more time to work on it since I retired April 2006.

When I started my family tree, my family was small, or so I thought.  I assumed that my family came to Chicago from the Old World.  Most did.  Then I learned about my paternal great grandparents - the parents of my dad's mother, Gertrude Sophia Minor.  Henry B Minor was born in Uniontown PA and his wife, Sophia Booi, was born in Chicago but her mother and father came from Holland and England (respectively).  

Huh.  Pennsylvania.  Who knew?  No one in the family had ever mentioned it.  My family, and my world, was suddenly larger that I knew previously.  Then, shortly after moving to Winchester VA in December of 2015, I learned that my great-grandfather, Henry B Minor was in the PA Cavalry, and he is on the PA State Memorial at Gettysburg.  Wow.  Henry was born 3 hours from where I am now and he fought at Gettysburg, 3 hours from where I am now. 

Wait.  My ever-enlarging family and world is, in some way, getting smaller (if that makes sense).  In just the past year or so, I've learned that my Minor ancestors originated in Connecticut when Thomas Minor came from England in the 1620s (conflicting years on that).  There were a lot of Minor children, and some moved down the east coast and others across the country in the following years.  

I recently learned that my 5th great-grandparents, Stephen and Athalia Minor lived in Winchester in the mid-1700s, at the time Winchester was being founded!  (It was originally called Frederick City I think.)  So, here is my SMALL WORLD.  Here I am in Winchester VA.  Additionally, Henry B Minor was apparently in Winchester and Opequon (about 15 minutes from me) during his time in the cavalry during the Civil War.  I'm gobsmacked!  Yes, I am a transplant but I have ROOTS here in the Shenandoah Valley!

One important thing to note.  As a former tax auditor, I like documentation, and I feel the need to analyze and verify.  Although I have a lot of information to show that I have the correct ancestral line back to Thomas Minor, I feel that I can use some additional documentation to be 100% sure.  I have over 60 DNA matches to folks who also have a MINOR in their family tree.  DNA doesn't lie but family trees online often contain errors.  I need to be honest and say that I could be wrong, but I'm working on verifying.  If I'm wrong, then that would mean that Ulysses S Grant is not my 6th cousin 3x removed.  Oh well. The other folks in my family, in my Life, are more important anyway.

Fifteen years ago today we brought Woody home and into our family.  Yesterday we put Woody to sleep.  He lived a good life.  Today we brought him home for the last time.  Frank, my husband, took him to All Pets Cremation Center in Winchester yesterday. I went with him today to bring Woody home.  The staff were wonderful.  Great compassion.  I felt that they genuinely cared about Woody.  Woody will be missed.  RIP sweet boy.

PS - Trouble publishing.  May not post today.

Huh.  Just saw this draft.  Will it still publish? (from 2016!)

My Life's Story - Just a start (hopefully not a false start)

My, how time passes!  I haven't posted for quite a while but that does NOT mean that I haven't been doing anything.  Perhaps that's my problem - too busy with other stuff. 

My posts are primarily for me.  I need a place to record my thoughts.  My past.  My life history.  My daughter spent a lot of years without me in her Life.  I'll go into the details about that as I write down my history.  There are no bells and whistles here.  Most folks will find this boring and not bother to return.  That's okay.  As long as I can record what I need to say to my daughter, I'll be happy.

I've started to write, several times, on my laptop in a Word document.  I struggle with HOW to start.  How to organize.  Do I write events and memories chronologically?  Or by category?  Or a combination of both?  I think it will be a combination.  For instance, my early years.  My fractured school life.  Giving birth to my daughter, and other major events in my Life. 

I can see that I haven't had any comments on "recent" posts, and that's all right.  Again, this is for me, and my daughter.  If I continue to have "false starts" in a Word doc, I'm afraid they will never see the light of day.  Also, I cannot continue to agonize over what I should, and shouldn't write.  I just need to unleash and let go of my thoughts.  No walls. I've held back too long.  It's time to break down those walls, or at least open the windows and let the light shine in, or OUT.  

Hmmm.  This is rather cathartic.  It feels good.  I'm on my way.  Let's hope it's not another 2 years before I write again.  However, from past experience, I know I'll get distracted and forget to write.  No matter.  I've taken the first step.  

My "working title" for My Story is Memoirs of an Amateur.  I read Oscar Levant's autobiography, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, decades ago.  That title has stuck with me all these years.  

Again, NO bells.  NO whistles.  Additionally, NO ADS!  (No one would pay me for this!)

Later!

In Search of my Father

I have fond memories with my father in my early years. After his nervous breakdown in the mid-1950s (PTSD no doubt) things weren't the same, but I always knew he was a good soul. My dad was lost to the family a while back and I've been doing what I can to find him. In 2016 I flew to Chicago to file a police report, and after that I submitted my DNA locally so I could be entered into a nationwide database (NamUs). A cousin also submitted her DNA. I doubt that my father is still alive, but I'm hoping a DNA match will bring him "home" so I know that he is, finally, at peace. He deserves that. I guess I'm saying all this because it's Father's Day weekend. When we're young we may not always appreciate the parents we have. Remember that they won't always be there so enjoy them while you can. I think of my father just about every day, and I hope & pray that I find him some day.

I copied this (the above paragraph) from my Facebook page.  I don't post to FB a lot, and I post to my blog even less often.  I've never been in the habit of writing in a journal every day.  I'm more of a "bad weather" journal writer.  I tend to write, or have bouts of inner discovery, when I'm a bit sad, contemplative, or just in a "mood" that I can't explain.  I've been that way since I was a teenager.  

I really want to write more but the "Real World" keeps getting in the way.  How does one find time to write about Life when busy living Life????  I don't know and that's why I take long breaks between posting to my Blog and to Facebook.  I also posted a couple of photos to my FB when I posted the above paragraph.  I'll post those to my Blog later.