TALES WORTH SHARING
Personal stories bring family history to life.
Raising two daughters has given me plenty of excuse to tell stories—some funny, some sad and some of interest only to the family. My mother told me a few; my father, the rest.
I’ve always been fascinated by one story about my father as a teenager. He traveled by himself from Hungary when it was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was supposed to sail from Hamburg, Germany, to England and, once there, get a third-class ticket to sail in steerage on the Titanic. We’ve since learned that people in steerage, below the Titanic’s decks, had the lowest survival rate. Yet by a quirk of fate in my dad’s travel plans that kept him from sailing, we are here to tell his story!
Another story is how my grandfather, the mayor of a rural Hungarian village, saved a Jewish storekeeper from a bunch of angry, intoxicated soldiers. Armed only with a chair, courage and a gift for words, Gramps diffused a very bad situation. Later, that storekeeper’s son helped my father get his traveling papers to America.
Then during the Great Depression, just before my parents lost their farm in Pennsylvania, a traveling salesman came to the door. My mother felt sorry for him, so she bought some cheap brushes she had no use for and gave him the few dollars she was saving for a dress. That memory makes me very proud of her.
My folks came from a place and time that had no TVs or radios, so storytelling was important to them. My siblings (there were 10 of us) grew up listening to all kinds of stories. The ones we liked best always had a supernatural twist.
Whether you handwrite, type or download your stories onto computers, record the family history as best as you can. Some day in the future, new generations are sure to enjoy them.