Our Stories

[finngirl]

thought it would be interesting to have
a 4th of july "american stories" thread:
any special thoughts/remembrances/etc

actually,tho ... wherever you live, please join in ...
all are welcome

if it doesn't take off ... would admin please delete?
TIA
_ _ _ _ _

my mother's people have lived here
since well before the war between the states ...
my grandmother's grandmother survived
the burning of atlanta

but I was born in america because a baby died
on the other side of the world 90+ years ago

my paternal grandparents grew up
on neighboring farms in finland
and the two families did not get along at all:
her family was wealthy/his was not

their childhood friendship deepened into love
and altho their romance was forbidden
they both knew who/what they wanted

my grampa's father nailed his bedroom window shut
to stop the unauthorized visits "next door" ...
causing grampa to loosen his bedroom floorboards
and sneak out by crawling under the house

both families realized how serious it was becoming
and gramma's family made plans to send her
to live w/ relatives in sweden ... so the young couple eloped

Jakko and Lidia's first child was born
during the first year of their marriage ...
but the son lived only a few months

both families then demanded an end to the marriage
and the situation became impossible
so my grampa said: we will go to america

he kissed his mother goodbye that last morning
but his father refused to tell him farewell
or even speak to him ...
and they never laid eyes on each other again

grampa emigrated first/sponsored by a cousin
and found work in the iron ore mines
of michigan's upper penninsula

gramma followed two years later
when grampa could afford her passage

they had 15 children/12 survived to adulthood ...
every one of them a super-american patriot
altho they always embraced their finnish heritage

grampa learned english quickly and became fluent
but gramma was never confident in the new language.
and since grampa worked long hours in the mine
his children very seldom saw him ...
so my father grew up speaking only finnish
and he was always self-conscious re his immigrant parents
and his first-generation-american status

he was frightened to attend school w/ "american" kids
so he was delighted that first day of first grade
(no kindergarten in those days)
when his teacher w/ a finnish name
spoke to him in his familiar language

she said: enjoy yourself and feel comfortable today ...
because this is the last day that you and I
will use the language you speak at home.
you are an american child and you must learn english,
which is the language of your future here

she taught him slowly/patiently/successfully

flash forward to the day after pearl harbor ...
my dad/every boy of age in town enlisted that morning
w/o any doubts or hesitation.
he served in the CBI theater during WWII:
china - burma - india

decades later my father/also named Jakko (Jacob)
visited his cousins on the old farm in finland
and a calf born during his stay was named Jakko

my dad has flown the stars and stripes in his yard
every day for over 60 years, weather permitting.
we're talking commercial-grade flagpole here
and he also donated the same setup to his church

the first morning in his new home 25 years ago,
he blasted reveille while running old glory up the pole ...
which really caught the neighbors' attention, LOL

my dad taught me to love this country like life itself

I literally cannot look at my flag w/o shedding a tear ...
oh my!

I'm always the first one on my feet
before the color guard passes in a parade ...
and on occasion I have talked loudly to my grandkids
about "why we stand for our flag" ...
hint/hint to any spectators who are still seated

for some reason I adore the US Marines ...
perhaps due to having the biggest crush on my Uncle Jack
who came home from korea wearing his dress blues
when I was 5 years old

I take a sheet cake to the local recruiting office
every year on november 10 and yell:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARINES! AND THANK YOU!

everyone loves their county and everyone's entitled to that ...
wouldn't have it any other way ...
but I recognize that where you're born is the luck of the draw
and I think about that all the time

my country is not perfect and neither is my child
but recognizing their faults does not diminish my love

wishing all Monkeys a happy 4th of july
... or whenever you celebrate who/what you are!


_ _ _ _ _

rooting for Canada to take some gold in China
because they are way good neighbors
and if they win gold I will get to hear "O Canada"

english
http://www.canadianheritage.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/sc-cs/MP3/O-Canada-eng.MP3

french
http://www.canadianheritage.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/sc-cs/MP3/O-Canada-fra.MP3
_ _ _ _ _

synchronized swimming w/ fixed bayonets:

USMC silent drill platoon 6:08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y90UPLLo6nY

honor and glory/USMC silent drill platoon 13:31
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsCCOor1KX8&

[LilPuma]

My father's parents came here from Holland before their children were born.  I never heard them talk about the old country.  I only heard them speak a few words in Dutch.  Because they wanted to be Americans.  They wanted their children to be Americans.  They eventually started their own business.  Their business didn't make them rich, but it allowed them to raise 8 children and have a nice home.  I thank God they came here so that I was born American. 

[LilPuma]

I met a woman who appeared Asian, had an Asian name, but seemed American in every other way.  She had a good job with a top notch company, was married and spent her honeymoon in Hawaii.  As I got to know her, she told of leaving her homeland, Vietnam, as a little girl with her parents and siblings in the middle of the night.  They were afraid.  They were running for their lives.  She was too young at the time to remember all the details of their trip and arrival in the United States, but she remembered leaving her home with nothing.  If she and I had kept in touch longer, I'm sure there would have been more stories to tell.  But listening to her story gave me a new perspective on the war in Vietnam and made me proud of America. 

[BTgirl]

Finngirl and Puma

I think your stories are very interesting. Thanks for sharing them with us.

I wish I knew more about my family's background. My sister has done genealogical research on them for years and years, and as far back as she can find records on them, they've always been here. I know I had a great-great,etc.-grandfather who fought in the revolutionary war, because the DAR invited us to join. (We didn't, but we appreciated the invitation.) I had a great-great-grandfather who was drafted to fight for the confederacy in the civil war. He was then captured by the north, who said he could either fight for them or be killed. He wasn't particularly interested in fighting anyway, so he switched sides, LOL. He lived a long life after that and is buried in the local military cemetery. I had another great-great-grandfather who was drafted to fight for Alabama. He deserted so many times to go back to the farm to check on his wife and kids that they finally let him out of the military. I guess we're not a family of great military heroes, LOL.

From the records my sister has found, all our ancestors were either Scottish, Irish, or English. She's pretty sure my dad's family came over in the 1600s to Virginia. My mom's family might have been latecomers and not gotten here until sometime in the 1700s. As far back as we can trace them, they always lived in the south - Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. No one in the family has ever been wealthy for famous - mostly just farmers.

Based on what we know about our family, if I had to pick what my cultural background is, I guess I'd have to go with Redneck. 

[finngirl]

BTgirl: re redneck, LOL!

pretty amazing that you know so much
about your family history

1600s/1700s:
can you even imagine what it was like then?
so much open space ... clean/unpolluted

re temporarily deserting his post to check on farm/family ...
AFAIK that was very common and very necessary.
I bet lotsa modern-day warriors wish they could do that

re wealthy/famous vs farmers:
the world can function quite well w/o famous faces
but could not function at all w/o farmers ...
go, aggies!!!

thank you for sharing some of your story 

[finngirl]

LilPuma:

your grandparents obtained riches
that can't be deposited in the bank

I think their desire to become americans
is the main way that older generation of immigrants
differs from a large number of today's immigrants ...
which is sorta sad, IMO

re that little vietnamese girl:
I always think about how brave such people are ...
and wonder if I could do what they did:
leave everything/everyone familiar/dear to me

I remember a family we knew when I was real young

they were among approximately 200,000 refugees
who left budapest after the hungarian uprising in 1956

they wore as many sets of clothing as possible
because they couldn't carry suitcases ...
they gave their baby sleeping pills so she wouldn't cry
during their escape thru a heavily patrolled area at night

the pills wore off at one point/the baby girl wailed
and the mother feared that she had smothered her infant
while stifling her cries ... but luckily she was OK

they carried just one satchel:
money/jewelry/photos/important documents

I remember my parents often talking late into the night
w/ these hungarian parents and everyone was crying

I remember them saying that they hoped the children
would not remember the journey

::: sigh :::

thank you for sharing

[LilPuma]

I recently read an article about refugees from Burma/Myranmar.  There were workers at the airport greeting them and helping them get settled.  They had to be prepared to get jobs.  But they were having difficulty finding a translator.  One day, one of the relief workers picked up a young man at the airport who greeted her in perfect English.  She almost fell over, grabbed him by the arm and hired him to be their translator before he even got out of the airport.  He's doing a lot more than translating; he's become the liaison for this small community as they try to learn English, get jobs, get the kids in school, etc.  It was such a great story and it's unfortunate that all we hear in the news is which illegal was arrested for which crime.  Certainly that's important and a huge problem, but there's so much good that America does that the world ignores.  I guess it's one reason we should still read newspapers and not rely on our televisions to tell us what's happening in this world. 

Another story with a more light-hearted tone.  A couple years ago, when Hispanics took a day off to demonstrate for immigration reform, I was watching some news story when my building's maintenance man came in to do something.  He's from Mexico and saw what I was watching.  I didn't want to get into a debate with him on the subject, but I gave him a very serious, concerned look and said "Do you have a green card?"  He laughed and said Yes.  I laughed and so "oh good :::sigh:::".  When we needed a second guy to help him, he found someone for us.  Very reliable and hard working and still learniing English.  But we still have immigrants helping other immigrants find their way, be productive, responsible residents, maybe citizens.  Just like when our grandparents or great-great-grandparents came here. 

God BLESS America. 

[sharon]

My parents are first generation American -- both born in different burroughs of NYC.

Their parents were immigrants born in Russia and/or Poland -- in the late 1800's and early 1900's the borders seemed to change depending on day of the week.

Thanks to ancestry.com and geneaology.com I've been able to find ship manifests with some of my grandparents and some of their siblings.    And their arrivals onto Ellis.

kewl.

I try not to take my birthright for granted. It really is the luck of the draw.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA.

God Bless the USA.