It amazing how the voices of the past can speak to you when you least expect it.

 Over the weekend, I was home in Des Moines and I grabbed a folder with some writings by my great-grandfather. He was an amateur writer who liked to tinker with a typewriter every now and then. I grabbed the folder because I remember he wrote some stores about his family (which would help me as I work to piece together a family tree...which is an on-going project and gift for my sons).

 While I had remember he had written about his family, I had forgotten entirely about the stories themselves.

 On Saturday night, after we got back home and the boys were in bed, I spent some time re-reading those stories and they spoke to me in an amazing way. My great-grandfather was born in the 1890's to a family that, by his own account and admission, was dirt poor. There were nine of them: my great-grandfather, his parents and his six brothers. They moved around quite a bit from Iowa to North Dakota to Michigan.

 It's one of the stories he related while the family was in North Dakota that is still sticking in my mind. Great-grandpa's dad was a saddle maker who eventually owed more money than he had and the business went belly up. A family friend allowed all 9 of them to live in essentially a barn. It was the middle of winter. The barn was not well constructed. The door to the barn did not have a handle, it was a hole that had a piece of leather attatched to it. The leather would be pulled on to either open or close the door.

 It was the middle of winter and that hole in the door allow frigid winds and some snow to blow into the barn. The family, all 9 of them, would sleep under whatever covers they had, huddled around a wood stove. They would lie as close to it as possible to stay warm without burning themselves. They would wake up in the morning and and saliva or mucus in their mouths or noses would be semi-frozen. My great-grandfather would have to shovel any snow that blew into the farm back out into the yard. They lived like this and survived.

 I sat in bed, reading this in total comfort, listening to the air conditioner outside as it kept the house cool from the outside heat and humidity. I had no idea my great-grandfather had to live like that. There were other stories too about eating skim milk and oatmeal for MONTHS to live because no one in the family had a job. I read about the family's attempts in the early 1900's to farm but being hit by repeated years of drought.

 It was an eye-opening experience to me and re-affirmed how lucky and fortunate I am to be able to support my family in comparable comfort. Wow. It really hit me over the head.

 Quote Of The Day: Trouble if part of your life, and if you don't share it, you don't give the person who loves you a chance to love you enough." Dinah Shore

 This Day In History: Virginia Dare became the first child of English parents to be born in the United States on this date, August 18th, 1587.

 Something You Should Check Out: The famous dentist sketch from the Carol Burnett show with Tim Conway and Harvey Korman. Watch as Korman (who is sitting in the dentist chair) tries to keep himself from laughing.

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