Friday, December 5, 2008

Well Here Goes

I haven't done this before so you have to bear with me. First let me start on what brought me to this point.

It all started looking through out the house for some cereal mix that my wife had made for Christmas. (Not sure what the real name is but it is a mixture of Rice Chex, Cheerios, peanuts, M&Ms all held together with melted almond bark.) I was sure my wife had hid it so I wouldn't eat it all. Anyway I found it in our spare bedroom,(I knew she hid it), and I was munching on this delectible snack while looking at all of the family photos we have in that room. There is pictures of my family, a nephew that is gone, and a plaque made by a brother that has a picture and poem about our first fishing trip in Canada, and many others. Well looking at all of these got me started thinking about family and I realized I hadn't visited my son Randy's blog for a while. So I thought I would do that. I read those that I hadn't read yet and started thinking what a great diary or list of thoughts and events that a person goes through.

All of you bloggers have probably already thought of this but if a person saved all of these, what a great artifact for children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and so on to read. I know if I could read a blog from my Dad's life and grandfathers life how cool it would be. So anyway I decided to start my own blog and here it is. My plan is to save all of these in a book that family and friends can read. I guess I am assuming that someone will want to read it but I guess that is their choice. At least it will be there for those who want to.

My wife Brenda has an aunt whose husband had a log/diary and we got a hoot out of reading it last summer. I thought it was funny when her Aunt talked about the family arguments that the log had settled about when something happened. After he passed on she continues to write in it at least a couple of time per week.

Well that will have to do it for now as we are having our neighbors over for dinner and I am the cook in our house and I have to start to do that.

I am going to close with a saying from Peter Chuchmouse, (a mouse that writes an article in our church newsletter). "Life is good if you let it!"

3 comments:

randymeiss said...

SWEET! Welcome to the exciting blogging world DAD!!! Living proof of answered prayer right here. Allow me to be the first commentator. I guarantee you'll get hooked on this. Now you'll have to get into commenting as well. Sometimes commenting on other blogs is even funner than writing your own.

I'd be interested in the address for Brenda's aunt's blog if you have that handy.

Keep it up! I look forward to reading more! It's great to see you out here.

AZJim said...

Thanks for comment and the vote of encouargement. I will try and keep things amusing or at least interesting. Brenda's Aunt doesn't have internet connectivity so her blog is just a handwritten diary. Sorry.

Steve at Random said...

Randy's Dad - You are right how interesting it would be if your father and grandfather had kept a blog. On my wife's side of the family, her mother and grandmother have kept diaries as has my wife. It truly is a treasure trove. When I worked for the Bismarck Tribune, I wrote a full page article for the Sunday magazine regarding my wife's grandmother's memories on the farm. She lived with her husband and five children near Crown Butte west of Mandan. Her name was Rose Frohlich and the diaries have been read steadily by various members of her family since she passed away in the mid-1990s. One of the things I discovered was the North Daktota dinosaurs (the threshing machines you see on the hill sides) were used up until the 1940s when the combine became a common feature on the farm. I thought the days of the threshing machines were a lot older than that. I also remember Rose talking about the greatest day of her life...it was about 1948 and it was when Mor-Gran-Sou strung electricity wires to the farmhouse. She was so happy that she opened the fridge door and sat with her feet in the refrigerator on a hot August day while eating ice cubes. You can make up things like that. Unfortunately, however, TV soon arrived and the farm families quit visiting each other and playing cards like they had in the past. Instead, they stayed home and watched "Your show of shows" and the "Texaco Star" theater. Something was lost while something was gained. Still the diaries of 60 and 70 years ago give a person today and true sense of what life was like with a chemical toilet and no running water. And if you're wondering who I am, I'm cute guy who stands next to your son in the quartet.