Grandparents Get Involved
- Ideas for Grandparents
Living History
from A Grandpa's Notebook
by Meyer Moldeven
For many of us, our lives are
keyed to significant events, transitions,
locales, or something that has importance to ourselves
or to our families.
For me, the important events and episodes happened
to be on a time-line
by location:
the places where my family resided
over the years. I spent
the first twenty-five years of my life in the city
where I was born and
raised. Afterward, a few years in a distant city,
then on to another and
still another, each invariably distant and different
than before.
After I retired, I took the time to make notes
on as many important events
that I could recall, and keyed each to a geographic
location. I gave each
episode a title or sketched a brief outline that
would stimulate my
memory to the place and help me to talk about it.
My list began with city
A: my preschool and school years (with several
sub-headings because
those times had been chaotic); the Great Depression,
the first job, etc.
City B: why I was there; the job; etc. I continued
on to the next and the
next.
When I finished my initial list of 'cities' or
'countries' and numbered
them I found that I had more than two hundred events,
episodes or time
periods. I arranged them so that one followed the
other as they had
occurred or were otherwise linked. That became
my outline.
I took the list along when I visited my grandchildren
(my daughter had
briefed the family beforehand about Grandpa's list.)
Evenings, relaxed at
the table after dinner, Grandson or Granddaughter
would call out, for
example, 'Grandpa! Number 67!' I made a big deal
out of hauling the
list from my back pocket, carefully unfolding it,
locating the number and
reading the title aloud. Then, on to chin-rubbing,
head scratching, ceiling
staring, and after enough 'C'mon, grandpa! Get
with it!' from all
directions I went into my act, narrating in words,
tone, gestures, and body
language the events of oft-told 'Number 67', or
whatever number they
had chosen.
They would listen, spellbound and cut in with
comments and questions.
To them, it was their family history and often,
drama, and they really
want to know. Invariably, the story was followed
with reminiscences by
their Mom and Dad who added variations, details,
interpretations from
their memories, and spin off comparable events
in their lives, often long
into the wee hours.
Autobiography became living history-the occasion
of the telling, itself, is
now an event not to be forgotten-and the finest
kind of intergenerational
communication. |
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