I've been really busy this weekend/week!! I spent the weekend in Ft. Smith at my Grandparents house. My grandfather celebrated is 86th birthday. He has Macular Degeneration so he can't see real well anymore and my Grandmother broke her hip for the second time and they have confined her to a wheelchair because she walked too soon after the first brake. Anywhoo needless to say they can't get around well and needed some help cleaning out a closet full of pictures and documents.
I really feel as though I stumbled upon a gold mine because apparently back in the 60's the "in" thing was using a camera that produced slides, and I found them all! They were all my mothers baby/toddler pictures and she really thought she was adopted because of the lack of baby pictures of her but they were just on slides. I spent all day Saturday looking at all the baby pictures of my mom and her sister.
I also got a pretty good dose of family history. I learned all about both sides of my family as far back as my great great great great grandparents. My great great great great grandfather was full blood Indian (Native American-whatever) and my great great great aunt died on top of Crowley's Ridge when she leaned back too far in her Rocking Chair and fell backwards and the pipe she was smoking lodged down her throat and killed her! I also found out my Great grandmother came to Arkansas from Iowa and she kept a diary and from reading it I learned how to make Lye Soap and how to skin a hog and that they traveled from Iowa in a wagon and walked most the way behind it!! And I also found out that My great Grandfather got his arm cut off when he was young because he stuck it in a cotton Gin.
I also found tons of old newspapers from the Ft Smith Papers. The headlines read "The President has been shot." !!! I know right! It was all the coverage on the Kennedy Assinatation, and I mean all of it! So cool..
The thing I'm most excited about though is all the things I found of my Grandfather's, Second Lieutenant, Hobart "Wayne" Treadway Air Force Pilot. Grandad served in WWII and was a Pilot of a B-17 Bomber plane. After 18 missions he was shot down over Germany and Held prisoner for three long months until he was liberated at the end of the war in 1945. Anyway Guess what I found?? EVERYTHING that ever had to do with his time spent in the war. I mean letters home, letters to him, his pilot log, his discharge papers, his graduation papers his flight books, his weather books, pictures of him and his graduating class. Pictures of him and his crew in front of his plane. I found Telegrams from the Army to my grandmother telling her he was MIA I found telegrams to her saying he was found. I found his papers from Germany when they registered him in the German POW Camp. I found it all baby!!!
I'm a huge History lover so I confiscated everything and I'm preserving it and putting it all in a big book. I bought everything yesterday and I'm SOOO excited to do this for him. He was so happy that I was so interested in it and we sat and talked for hours about war stories. I'll start posting Photos and Scanning documents to you can see what I'm seeing. I'll also let you in on some of the stories he told... It's so cool! Maybe I'm the only nerd that likes stuff like this but it's History and I love it!
P.S. I LEAVE IN THE MORNING FOR GULF SHORES ALABAMA TO SPEND THE REST OF THE WEEK LOUNGING ON THE BEACH! ENJOY YOUR WORK WEEK :) I'LL BE SUNTANNING!
3 comments:
Oh this is TOO awesome! I know it means the world to him that you are so interested in the life he had and experienced. Can you imagine experiencing those things and having a grandaughter that is so interested in your life that she wants to preserve everything into memory books?!? You're probably his favorite! :) Please share stories and photos... I'm interested as well. PS- You're not a nerd!!!
Awesome!! HAve fun in AL. Remember the little people back in AR!
That's fantastic Jenna! Interesting to find out so much about your family! Looking forward to seeing the progress of the book project.
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