I used to think that it didn't matter where you came from, or what your history was.
You were, who you were.
And to some extent, I guess that is true. You can rise above anything, become anything, change your future and not live your past but your past is always a part of you. Not just the past that you have lived but the past your parents have lived and grandparents have lived.
Abby has been immersed for the last few weeks in a project on her family tree for a school project. She has been talking to relatives and gathering information on her family. What were her grandparents names and great-grandparents and great-great grandparents? Who lived where? Who served in the military? She has been excited to learn that she has English blood, Scottish blood, and even Irish blood. She decided though that for her project she would embrace her Pennsylvania Dutch (German) heritage which comes from my father's side of the family. I wanted her to do that because so much of what who she is becoming is being shaped by living in the South, which is it's own unique heritage and while I want her to be proud of that, I also want her to be proud of the heritage that she has from my side of the family.
In reminiscing for the project and gathering photographs together, I realized how much I took for granted growing up in area that had Amish families with their horses and buggies, people that still spoke Pennsylvania Dutch (or German) primarily, incredible food (shoofly pies, chicken potpie, chow chow), beautiful snow falls, good polka music, farmer's markets, and so much more. Phrases that my mom and dad always said sound funny to anyone not from Pennsylvania, "Outen the light (turn the light out), "quit ruching (moving ) around", "you are so doplich (clumsy)." My grandmother used to always say, "We need to redd (clean) up the kitchen" or when my hair was messy she would always say that I looked like "Strubley Betts" and I would giggle because it sounded so funny.
As wonderful as all of those memories were and a part of me, I also realized that certain aspects of my personality are all Pennsylvania Dutch and maybe not as wonderful. The Pennsylvania Dutch are known for being unfriendly and closed. They are self sufficient, hate change, and want to keep their lives private within their family. I can definitely see many of these things within my personality but I also think that my time in the military and moving all over the country combined with a wonderful Southern husband has tempered some of those tendencies. Bud never goes anywhere that he can't find someone to talk to, I don't usually find the need to talk to anyone and think that texting people is the greatest invention ever.
I am hopeful for my girls though. Hopeful that just as I grew up in a mixed household (a Pennsylvania father and a mother from Indiana) that maybe my girls growing up in a blended Northern and Southern household might get the best from both of us, instead of the worst.
Abby's project ended on an up note as we baked a shoofly pie from her great grandmother Sarah's recipe book to share with her classmates and she picked out one of her great grandmother Virginia's aprons to wear over her skirt for Immigration day at school.
Immigration day was designed for kids to celebrate where they came from but also to understand the experience of what it was like for immigrants coming from other countries, processing through Ellis Island and settling into their new homes in a brand new country.
Getting his passport checked by one of the teachers
Abby and R , the German immigrants
Waiting in the very long line to process
Abby's wonderful teacher, Mrs. Z.
Leaving "Ellis Island" and headed toward the "train station"
A huge thanks to our school staff who made this such an incredible experience for the kids and who also allowed me to walk back down memory lane and look at my heritage.
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