Family Trip to Florida

Did you ever go to visit relatives you didn't know? When you were a kid, did your parents tell you to play with children you had never seen before? Why do adults think that just because you are all children, you will be happy to spend time together and that you will actually enjoy it?

My sister, Gay, and I were shy, uncomfortable with strangers. The year I started first grade, my mother and father and two of my teenage brothers took a rare trip to Florida. Mother missed her sisters, nieces and nephews and my father had siblings in that state as well. We would not have gone had it not been for the car my older sister's husband sold to my parents. It was fairly new and in good shape to make the long trip all the way to Miami with stops along the way. 

I'm sure we were gone for at least a week. My brother tells me we made stops in Orlando, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Palmetto and on down to south Florida, but the only part of the trip that stayed in my mind was the night Gay and I were sent to sleep over with two girl cousins we did not know. Their family dinners were far different from the ones at our home on the farm. This poem tells the story of that unforgettable night.

Sleepover

When I was seven and Gay was five,

we traveled with our family to visit relatives

we'd never met.

I preferred a pallet on the floor

of Mother's room, but she sent us home

with Ellie who had children near our age.

At dinner Ellie's husband shouted words

we’d never heard. Shriveled by his fury, we

huddled small, wanting to vanish from the room.

Later in the darkness, beside a sleeping cousin,

I mopped my tears in silence and I wondered 

why my mother had abandoned us to strangers

she called kin.

                           ---  Glenda Council Beall

Family Photos from annual Christmas Party

If you are a regular reader, you know I like to use pictures as prompts for stories and essays. I am sharing some photos from our recent family Christmas party down in Albany, Georgia.

Stu and Gay, Me, and my only brother still living, Max and his wife, Salita.
No one would believe that in May his cardiologist had given up on him.

 Max has been the subject of a number of essays I've written and is in a few poems. His life is rich and has the makings of a good book.

One of my handsome nephews. He is a Star Teacher and loves his work.

"The Kids" - my nieces and nephews and some cousins

As Scott Owens has said, as long as we have family we never run out of subject matter for our writing. The tall handsome guy in the very back has a darling grandson, Elliott. This grandfather and I were neighbors on the family farm in south Georgia. He created a Haunted Forest that brings hundreds out to be frightened every October. 

The men in the above photo are all Councils. The three women on the left are children of Councils. The two women right in the middle are descendants of the Robison family, my mother's maiden name.

I learned yesterday that Mary Mike Keller will once again teach her genealogy class with writing about our ancestors for Writers Circle studio in Hayesville in 2014. My study of my family history began many years ago and I have tons of research printed and in my computer. I published a family history, "Profiles and Pedigrees, Thomas C. Council and his Descendants" in 1998. 

I believe that we should document our family history, stories and details that others will never know unless we take the time to write it down. Although "The Kids" might not be interested in collecting the history at the time, there will come a time when they will wish they had asked more questions and saved more things relating to their ancestors. 

Do you need a prompt to get you started with writing today?

Choose a family member and write what you remember from childhood about this person. Include details.