Tag: my family

Musk to Germans: ‘It’s OK to Be Proud to Be German’

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

World War Two, 15th October 1944, Germany, Civilians in the German..., News Photo

Germany, 1945: it still hurts.

The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, says the German people should stop hating themselves (https://x.com/brittpettibone/status/1883259366557581348).

Musk seems to be worried, these days, about distinctive national cultures dying out. After a trip to Germany, he concluded that Germans were “conditioned” to blame their country for World War II and hate themselves for it. Is that why the German government does nothing while illegal Muslim immigrants swarm across Germany’s borders?

I don’t know. Half of my family is German. My aunts visited the Germans, and they came over and visited us, when I was a boy. There didn’t seem to be any animosity lingering from World War II. German was sometimes spoken in Grandpa’s house… and occasionally in our own, by my mother.

But we grew up as Americans. It was as simple as that.

Germany had a very rough 20th Century–World War I, World War II, the Cold War (remember the Berlin Wall?)–and healing comes slowly.

Let’s see if Musk can do anything to help.

‘I Need Thee Every Hour’

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My mother used to sing this as she did her housework. So did my aunts. I guess they got it from Grandma. How this hymn brings them all back to me! I Need Thee Every Hour, sung by Fernando Ortega.

‘Are Americans Ignorant of the Bible?’ (2015)

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Ouija Board; Man and woman with hands on board seek message of spiritualistic or telepathic origin.

In 1950 70% of the children who were asked were familiar with the Bible.

Today… don’t ask!

Are Americans Ignorant of the Bible?

It required a major effort and much self-sacrifices, over a span of centuries, to make the Bible available to us as it is today. People died for it.

Four percent? That’s all? That’s our next generation’s commitment to God’s Word?

All I can say is that all the grownups in my family–parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles–did their part to see that my generation grew up knowing God the Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ.

I think we need to pray much harder.

By Request, ‘Just As I Am’

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My mother and my grandma used to sing this as they went about their housework, when I was a little boy–Just As I Am. Requested by Erlene, sung here by the Antrim Mennonite Choir.

‘I Need Thee Every Hour’

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This is another hymn my mother and my aunts used to sing as they went about their housework: I Need Thee Every Hour, sung by Fernando Ortega.

Lord, I need thee every hour and that’s no lie!

Memory Lane: ‘Flow Gently, Sweet Afton’

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I haven’t heard it in decades; but today this sweet song came to mind: Flow Gently, Sweet Afton, by Robert Burns. Sung here by Jo Stafford.

Long ago, my mother bought one of those little organs that used to be so popular. We all played it from time to time. Sweet Afton was in the songbook, and it became one of my favorites.

Oh, the goodness and the sweetness that it calls to mind! Those were good days. And how I miss them.

‘A Reminiscence of My Father’ (2013)

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Cecropia Moth. - Hyalophora cecropia - BugGuide.Net

Don’t let the picture fool you–this moth was HUGE!

My father liked to take his children with him when he had an errand. Our company was his pleasure.

A Reminiscence of My Father

Oh, how those memories touch me to the heart! Here’s just one of them.

Daddy parked on Main Street and went into Perry’s Store to buy something, while I waited in the car because he was only going to be a minute.

While I waited, the world’s biggest moth, I mean as big as your two hands put together, landed on the hood, right in front of me. Before I could collect my wits, it flew away; probably the car was too hot.

I can’t remember how I told my father what I’d seen. I think I might’ve been speechless.

Memory Lane: Family Cookouts

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398 Playing Horseshoes Stock Photos, High-Res Pictures, and ...

Ours was a very close-knit family, and summer was the season for our backyard cookouts. My aunts showed slides of their most recent travels, and my father and his kid brother, Uncle Ferdie, took my brother and me to the playground next door to play horseshoes.

Gee, I miss that! I’ve just realized I am now the oldest living member of my family: no one left with whom to play horseshoes. No more hamburgers on the grill. Grandpa John and his brother Jacob, visiting from Holland, used to treat us to harmonica concerts. I still have my harmonica, but no one to chime in with the mandolin.

The heat of the summer didn’t seem to matter, back then: we were all having too good a time to notice. Oh, the clinking and the ringing of the horseshoes on the metal stake!

But I’m sure there’ll be some of that in Heaven.

Memory Lane: My Mother and the Lizards

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740+ Iguana Eating Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free ...

“The nice humans made a salad for me!”

You mustn’t get the idea my mother would actually pet or try to pick up one of my lizards. No, precious! We don’t touch scary lizards!

But just about every day in the summer, she’d be out patrolling our multiflorabunda rose hedge with a jar in her hands, catching tasty insects for my lizards.

Memory Lane: My Mother and the Lizards

Love has many unexpected ways to show itself.

And of course Ma created really nice salads for my iguana. In fact, so did my wife and our neighbor. People just loved to feed him. But he was a mighty friendly animal.

 

‘Memory Lane’ Contest Winner: Katheleen

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EXPLOITS: Prehistoric Inspiration | THE REMODERN REVIEW

He couldn’t get the names quite right, but what did that matter?

I did find it mighty hard to choose a winner in this contest, so many sweet memories came in. And of course that was what we were all sharing.

But I give the prize to this one, from Katheleen, about the day her uncle taught her how to play chess.

Tommy’s Pond (‘Memory Lane’ Contest, Day 11)

Scroll down to the third post, that’s where it is. As I was reading it to Patty, I broke into tears: it called back to me dear Uncle Bernie, and sitting on his lap as he watched TV with me, told me stories, and performed these clever little magic tricks that I sometimes find myself doing… seventy years later. Parents and grandparents are great, but don’t sell short your uncles and your aunts. Ours was a very close-knit family, and those old memories are priceless. I loved them and I miss them!

Katheleen, chose your prize–either the T-shirt that says “If they have to kill us, they’ve lost” (large size only: but you’ll grow into it), or one of my books, autographed, of your choice.

I’ll never forget my uncle struggling to pronounce dinosaurs’ names as he read to me from my Natural History book. It was one of many ways he had to tell us children (his brothers’ children) that he loved us.

Be sure to send me your mailing address.