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Actually, I thought my parents' stories were fascinating. They were born in 1900 and 1908, were married in 1931 at the height of the depression. I listened to them with rapt attention, and by proxy, I have over a century of memories.
Same here. My grandmother's stories, too. She was born in 1892, which in and of itself fascinated me because that was in another century! The story that stuck with me most was her telling me how when she was four she and her six-year-old sister had diphtheria and she remembered the doctor coming in and saying, "I can save this one, but the other is too far gone," and she got a shot. When she woke up, her sister was gone. She took me to the cemetery and showed me where she was buried. Seventy years later, she was still mourning that sister.
Ten or fifteen years later, there was a diphtheria vaccine, and now that's the "D" in the DPT vaccine and no one even thinks of diphtheria or has even heard of it.
She also told me other stories of wearing hobble skirts, which were a popular fashion when she was a young woman and of working in the silk mills, where she met my grandfather.
My parents both told me depression stories. My mother remembers her mother telling her brothers, who lived with them, to run to the pond and see if they could find any turtles to put in the soup for dinner. They did. My mom said it was good.
She also remembers the sirens going off during WWII when they had to turn off the lights and pull black shades down over their windows. She had a mentally and physically disabled sister who would scream and cry when this happened. She remembers putting makeup on her legs and painting a "seam" down the back of her leg because nylons weren't available.
I remember telling my other grandmother that I had just watched Bonnie & Clyde on TV, and she saying, "Oh yes, I remember reading about them in the newspaper."
I will never have grandchildren because my only daughter is not having children, but I can tell great-nieces/nephews about being in the WTC on 2/26/93 and 9/11/01.
When we were little I remember my brothers and I asking our grandparents about the Roaring Twenties. We wanted to know what it was like to be a flapper, if she danced the Charleston, did she drink champagne from a slipper, etc.
She would roll her eyes and say "There were people called flappers but that wasn't my life. The closest I came was having bobbed hair."
I suspect the same will happen with us. Young kids will want to know what it was like to be a hippie and dance naked at Woodstock. I'll tell them I knew some people who actually were hippies, but that wasn't really my life. The closest I came was wearing some tie dye, going to see Woodstock (the movie, not the actual concert), and flashing the peace sign with my friends. In reality I was too busy with school and jobs to spend too much time doing hippie things, as amusing as I thought they were.
They might enjoy learning how to do the Hustle, though. Or maybe just the "point" thing John Travolta did.
Most people have the attention spans of a gnat. You wouldn't believe the number of people I know who simply do not read more than they are minimally required to do so. They would never sit through a storytelling session.
I'd say my descendants would want o know about 9/11.
Don't wait to be asked to tell your stories, start telling them anyway and even if you think your g-kids aren't listening (assuming no earbuds in) keep telling them. Do not expect shining faces turned up to gaze at you in adoration lol. Children are sponges and will remember what you say.
One of the best places to get an audience is during a car drive. Yes they will have their phones and be locked onto them but start talking and then occasionally ask them a question related to your story. For example: you're talking about growing up on a farm, ask them "Have you ever ridden a horse?" and then engage them in talking about horses, etc. It can't just be all grandparent going blah-blah-blah, gotta be some interaction.
Try and make your stories interesting to them and you will establish a connection.
A fave memory of my grandmother is sitting in the yard trying to find 4 leaf clovers. She was sitting down at my 4 year old level. Don't remember any discussion. Children are not used to starting conversations and asking meaningful questions, they are more into kid things like food and toys. Adults need to lead the way but keep the stories short and interesting and funny if possible.
What will turn them off is droning on about stuff that's boring. If you can relate your story to something present-day even better. Like on Memorial Day talk about being in the Army, etc and what you did. At Thanksgiving talk about what kinda pie your mom used to bake or who carved the turkey or something funny that happened.
I scanned photos of my kids as toddlers, put them on CDs. I sent each kids(now in their 50s) and each grandkid (now in their mid20s) a copy. They love them.
"Kids, once upon a time people used to have just one tv for a whole household. And there would be 5-6 kids and we would all gather in the same room and watch the one tv with our parents! And sometimes the neighbors would join us because they didn't have a tv. Not a single tv at all!"
I have some pretty interesting ones about things I have done and even more about things my grandfather did, but most of my children and now grandchildren don't wish to know.
Most people have the attention spans of a gnat. You wouldn't believe the number of people I know who simply do not read more than they are minimally required to do so. They would never sit through a storytelling session.
I'd say my descendants would want to know about 9/11.
As mentioned, I am a person who was in the WTC on 9/11. My daughter was ten at the time.
When the Memorial Museum opened a few years ago, the "9/11 Community"--survivors, families, first responders--were each given two free tickets to see the museums ahead of the opening to the public. I took my daughter, who was then in her early 20s.
I was amazed at how much she didn't know. I guess I just assumed that because I'd lived it, she'd picked it up, but in reality, she didn't even know MY personal tale of escape that day. She was a kid. It was no different than me growing up hearing "Vietnam" on the news all the time but having no clue what it was all about until I was an adult and read up on it.
Her clearest memory of the day is my idiot exh showing up to pull her out of school and tell her that I was probably dead. Just found out that little nugget a couple of years ago.
You are right about people not wanting to read or learn. Recently, I saw this incredibly moronic thing circulating Facebook about this guide dog that supposedly walked its owner out of One WTC--from the 101st floor too yet--then returned to rescue all these other people.
How do people who were alive on 9/11/01 NOT KNOW that nobody got down from 101 in One? The name Cantor Fitzgerald doesn't ring a bell? AA11 impacted around 94/95. Everyone from Cantor Fitz who was up there died--it was covered ad infinitum on the news for days. And do they honestly think that this dog ran back up 101 floors even if it were possible to do so? C'mon. C'mon. This is willful stupidity at work.
There are a lot of obscure and not-well-known stories about 9/11, but the above is some pretty basic information about the attack that I think anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the WTC attacks would be familiar with, or at least would flag in the mind a dumbass story as being unbelievable.
Last edited by Mightyqueen801; 07-12-2018 at 11:16 AM..
I think there are also some everyday things that we lived with that would surprise kids today, such as that shampoo and "creme rinse" (it wasn't called conditioner back then) came in glass bottles and sometimes broke in the shower, or that we didn't have blowdryers.
Or that until 1969 or 1970, girls had to wear skirts to school. Or that there used to be "Help Wanted - Male/Female" columns in the newspapers.
Or that there was a big thick thing called a "telephone book" that contained everyone's phone numbers that you used to put under a small child who couldn't reach the table.
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