"Show Me the way to go Home"

I was corresponding with my sister, Margie the other day. 

 We were talking about good memories of my parents. 

 She remembered how they dropped her off to see her parents just before her dad died. 

 She also remembered my mom's delicious pot roast's on Sunday. 

Then how dad would take the rolls and  put melted butter on them with the left over roast for sandwiches on Sunday night.

(I still make sandwiches like that..there's nothing better. - I can still picture dad making those delicious sandwiches.) 

Then, this morning I was reading Ann Cannon's article in the Tribune. 

 She wrote about keeping family stories alive. 

 

 Do children today listen to those old family stories that our generation heard whether we wanted to hear them or not?

I remember riding to work with dad. 

I heard his philosphies, his stories, sometimes I thought it was interesting, lots of times I thought it was boring. 

 Now I realize how much I absorbed and learned.

 

Our family gatherings were the same way..

the old songs, many old family stories, memories from the past. I feel as though I knew my Uncle Allen, who died before I was born, just from hearing stories about him.

 Looking back, I'm thinking what a wonderful way of life.  To learn from these people.  To learn about their lives, to learn our history, to learn how to overcome life's hurdles, to learn to laugh, to learn to sing.

We still get together.

That closeness and love is like a thread stitched through generations.

The family has grown, but we love gathering and sharing the love, the stories, the laughter, the legacy.  These young ones can still learn from those that have past away, because of those stories and the songs..

At the end of the day when we sing
and Sam gets all the words to
 "Show me the Way to go Home"
and says "I sang it all by myself."
 I smile, and I remember dad plunking that tune out on the piano,
during another time..other children singing the words. 

The legacy continues.