Monday, September 1, 2008

Fantastic Interests of our senior citizen's

You know there is a lot of emphasis on youth these days. Perhaps too much. Of course we want the best for our children and our grandchildren. And, we are genuinely interested in their interests and activities. Thus, we attend their soccer games, their swim meets, there dance recitals, look at their paintings on the classroom walls at PTA meetings, and on and on. However, I think we are over doing it here. What about the older persons- the grandparents. They have wonderous stories and fantastic things to show and tell. They also have wide fields of interests- maybe not so many interests and activities as when they were young and more energetic. But nonetheless, they have a whole life time of interests to talk about.

I was a little disappointed on "Grandparents day" last Spring at my granddaughter's Elementary School, that is Ron McNair, in Germantown, Maryland. We, the grandparents, sat at the back of the room and OBSERVED. They took us to the school's library and we were told what the children were reading. Very nice. But not once did the teacher ask us to stand up (even if it would be somewhat slowly) to talk about what it was like when WE were in school. What WE read as kids. What WE did after school and so forth. These young kids are missing so much I thought quietly to myself.

So, what is this entry about really? I believe we get so hung up on the kid's activities or busy ourselves so much with our own interests that we don't take an interest in what other people around us are doing. Especially those in our own families. Thus, I went to my 88 year old mother and talked a long while about some of her interests that she is or was involved in.

My mother is a wonderful artist. She painted on porcelain plates, cups, vases, and all kinds of items. And so with just minutes away from the deadline for submitting an entry on "Show and Tell" to the Carnival of Genealogy, 55th Edition, I want to show and tell of some the things which were created by the real artist in our family. God Bless her.

Mom gave me this pair of ceramic plates that she painted in 1975.


Image above: Details of Mom's painted plate- plums, apples and cherries. So good you could easily lift them off the plate and eat them.


Mom kept a book shelf in one room filled with porcelain items that she painted. And she would often say, "pick something out and take it home with you".

Genealogy anybody??

REFERENCES and LINKS:

Read the other entries in the 55th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, "Show and Tell".

3 comments:

Nikki - Notes of Life said...

Those plates are beautiful! :)

Bob Kramp said...

Thank you Nikki-Ann, I will pass that compliment on to my Mom. She would really appreciate it.

Janet Iles said...

Your mother has created some beautiful work.

I also like your reflections on grandparents' day at the school. You have a great idea there. Wouldn't it be fun to have the grandparents do a show and tell for the young ones.

PS I am not a grandparent although I am old enough to be one.