Driving by Our Family History

Our niece Samantha recently passed her occupational therapy licensing exam. To celebrate, the girls and I arranged to meet her after school last week. As I was driving to our destination, I took a short detour down a street I had traveled thousands of times before. Gramma and Grampa Latimer lived a few minutes away from us when we were growing up. My Grampa and his extended family built their three bedroom, one bathroom Cape Cod house. It was tiny but today’s standards, but it was their castle. Grampa came from a family with 13 children. Several lived within shouting distance. At one point we could run out the back gate to see Aunt Mary and Aunt Delores. Their families built houses close to Gramma and Grampa. When we were younger, Gramma and Grampa’s house was the place we celebrated holidays, visited with family and made wonderful memories. It has been a long time since Gramma and Grampa lived there, but I still smile when I drive by. Our girls were amazed when they saw the house. Given that Gramma had four brothers and sisters, they thought the house would be larger. I explained that Gramma, Aunt Dar and Aunt Bonnie shared a single, small bedroom. The girls were amazed that there was one bathroom in the house – and they all had to share it.  For the rest of the trip we talked about my memories and how different it was “way back then” as the brunette twin said. Someday our girls will drive their children by our home. I hope they have as many happy memories as I did when we drove by my Gramma’s house.