"Uncle Bob"

L-R: "Uncle Bob" with brothers George (my great gpa), Francis and Joe circa 1924

 When my dad died in January 2011, I inherited several boxes of family history. My grandpa worked for years to assemble our family genealogy going back to our family's arrival in the New World. My family is listed as one of the 13 pioneering families of Missouri. I am thankful that my grandpa never lived to see the years of ancestry.com after all of the work he put into assembling this information. That said, I am very happy that I can use these web resources to connect the dots. It's amazing how easy it it to gather information about your family members these days, be it current or past.

 A few weeks back, I uncovered on of these heritage boxes and started to thumb through it. I've always been interested in genealogy and it was incredible to see yearbooks from 1925, original tin types, themes written by my grandpa in college and even songs he copyrighted (he was a bit of a lounge singer). I discovered some things I had never known about my family. My great grandmother was a corsetier (lingerie sales). My great grandfather sold arcade games and vending machines. We were (and are) a working class folk. Among these items and historical documents, was an envelope of photos labeled "unknown" by my father. They looked just like the images we all run across in antique stores and thrift shops. By being unknown, the photos lose their meaning to a person, a family, and so children or grandchildren discard them. Not wanting this to become the fate of this envelope of photos, I decided to reach out to some long lost family members to help.

 "Uncle Bob" is really my great, great uncle Bob. He is my great grandfather's brother and was only 6 years older than my grandpa, which is how it's possible that I found him still living in Illinois. I have never met "Uncle Bob" but he has a lot of our family heirlooms going back further than I have. After reaching out, Bob graciously offered to host me if I came out to Elgin. He has 3 children who also live in the area that I will get to meet. Their hospitality combined with a fare sale from Southwest airlines...and I have a ticket to Illinois for early March. I am hopeful that he can help me name the unknown people in my collection of photos and pass on knowledge that no website can give me. I've heard he has a laugh a lot like my dad's.

Reinvention

Over the last few weeks, I have caught myself wandering back over to this blog. I haven't written here in 6 months and was not posting frequently then. I'm not sure why I keep typing in this web address except that all of a sudden, I'm wondering if I have something to say again. Here's the thing...it's not about hiking. At least, not in the literal sense.
 Life's been tumultuous in the last year.
* M lost his infant nephew in September
* I went to Colombia in October
* M gained a niece and nephew in November
* M turned 40 in November
* M and I got engaged in November
                          (November was particularly busy)
* I turned 30 in May
* We FINALLY closed out my dad's estate in June (it took 1 1/2 years)
* I went to France in July
* We lost our dear friend to leukemia in  July  (she was 45)
* We lost our dear friend to a brain tumor in August (he was 5)
* We get married next month
* I move to our new home next month

We have people in our lives going through new babies, adoptions, infertility, travel, cancer cancer cancer, new jobs, lost jobs, weddings, separations and so much more. So much joy, so much sadness. More than I ever remember having in any year. Is it just that I'm getting older? Are there MORE problems in the world or am I just old enough that they now happen to my peers, not my elders? Are things more extreme or does it just appear that they are?

All of this is making my head spin. I can't keep up and it's causing me to look for a center. A focal point. Life is generally wonderful but just as I count on the joy it brings,  I don't anticipate "life" slowing down or getting easier, I think it may be time to do a little self-rediscovery. As the saying goes, you don't know where you're going unless you know where you've been. I have a few ideas on how to pursue this, which I'll post as I go. Maybe my first step was to find my way back to this blog and take a walk down real chick memory lane. For now, this blog isn't going to be about outdoor adventuring or best places to hike with your dog. IT will be about a real chick, hiking her way through life.