Jo's Personal Blog at Blogger.com: 08/01/2014

Friday

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Awards

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations. - See more at: http://joannfitz.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/the-book-of-me-written-by-you-topic-1.html#sthash.2TuO2bVu.dpuf

The prompt for the week is:

Awards

The Brief:

Have you or a close family member received one?
What was it for?
How was it presented?
Do you still have it?
Have you inherited an award?
If so, who was awarded it and what for?

I don't think my great grandparents had any awards to speak of unless you count their children.

Maternal Side
My maternal grandparents didn't have any awards that I know of.

I do know one of my grand uncles actually won a ribbon at one of the local county fairs for his showing his Holstein cow.

My mother did receive a trophy for completing 10 years at one of her jobs as factory worker at first Champion Bag Factory and then at Ampac Paper Inc. She did receive her GED for completing a test for her equivalent in year 12 studies.

Paternal Side
My paternal grandmother didn't have any awards that I know of unless you count her children. However, my paternal grandfather, I believe, had at least a ribbon as he was in the US Medical Corps in World War 2. This is the only award I know about.

My father first completed his year 12 studies at Newburgh Free Academy in Newburgh, NY. Next, he enrolled in the US Navy. As you can see by the jacket below, he has many different ribbons he was awarded during his service in the US Navy and with the submarine corps.

Some of the patches and badges which are shown in this picture are:

Stripes on sleeves- The bottom hashmarks are equal for 1 hashmark for every 4 years served. The gold means the person serving had good conduct.

Chest decorations:

                  Silver Fish means enlisted Submarine Qualification.
                  Ribbons are: Occupations, Good Conduct, Navy Achievement, Cold War
                  Bottom pin under ribbons: Polaris Patrol Pin

Further, he was accepted as a US Submarine Veterans Holland Club member which is earned rather than bought.

Myself
During Elementary School I did receive recognition for some activities I had done. However, it wasn't until about Grade 5, I received a few awards which I could call Awards. The first was the P.T.O (Parent Teacher Organization) Award. This was given to a boy and a girl in the 5th grade who has worked the hardest and shown the most improvement.

The P.T.O Award

I was also a Girl Scout Brownie and Girl Guide. However, there was never any pictures, that I know of, that were taken and over the years I don't know what happened to my sash with my badges on it.

I loved to run and skip rope. I entered a few races that were held in the town of Walden, New York on the 4th of July and placed in some of the races.

One of the race results.

I did have a great amount of honor roll certificates but these were lost in the fire we had in 1997.

I did get an award for Financial Information Processing for placing 5th in the state of New York through an organization called FBLA or Future Business Leaders of America in 1991.

Then I was granted membership to both the Honor Society for Valley Central High School and for the Vocational and Technical Center I was enrolled in for Business Computer Technology. This was the first time someone int he Vocational and Technical Center was granted membership from Valley Central. Also, because of my grades they had also allowed me to be asked as a member for VCHS Honor Society which was a first.

This also meant that I could wear what they called cords for the graduation ceremonies for both of the schools.

Vocational Society Cords

At Vocational Center graduation

VCHS cords

VCHS graduation

Then at the Vocational Technical Center I was also awarded Outstanding Student at graduation in 1991.

Further, I was given a small scholarship to help with my expenses when I attend Orange County Community College in Middletown NY.

I did get an award when I was working for Manpower Temp Agency for working for so many hours and having high level of feedback from all businesses I worked with. They gave me a Tiffany necklace as a thank you.

Also, I was part of a group when I was attending OCCC with the computer club and we won Club of the Year in 1994.

1994 Club of the Year award - Club Activities chairperson, Joe G Secretary, Heidi B Secretary, Myself Vice President

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.

Wednesday

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Hairstyles

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

The prompt for the week is:

Hairstyles

The Brief:

Go on share your hairstyles over the years!
Do you have regular hairdresser habits?
Colour?
Do you dye it? (your secret is safe with us!)

Boy have I had hairstyles over the years... But they aren't too bad I have to admit, but as you will see they haven't changed much either.

I don't colour my hair but it is turning a nice white grey like my paternal grandmother, Jean. However, I know one of my sister's and brother all have my mother's salt and pepper and like wire grey hair. I love my hair colour.

Here are some of my hair styles over the years.

Aged about 1 1/2 - 2

Aged about 4

Aged about 5

Aged 6

Aged about 8 (with sister Jean)

Aged about 10

Aged about 13

Aged about 15

Aged 18 High School Sr Prom

Aged 18 High School Sr Picture


Aged 22 Graduation from college

Aged 22 before graduation

Aged 24 with soon to be husband, Brett

Aged 25 on wedding day

Aged 25 with soon to be husband, Brett

Aged 27

Aged 28

Aged 30

Aged 33

Aged 35

Aged 37


Aged 40

Aged 42

I did warn you I haven't changed much over the years!

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.

Monday

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Childhood reading

The prompt for the week is:

Childhood reading

The Brief:

Did you read as a child?
Did you experience the wonder of bedtime stories?
Favourite books
Did your childhood reading influence you?
Special moments and memories

I cannot remember being read to as a child. I can remember going to the library in Kindergarten and having them read to us. In the next grade we still did that but we could get some books to take home to read or have read to us. I always took them home to read or even just sit there looking at the pretty pictures.

I still remember the years one of my teachers would read to us from the series "Little House on the Prairie" and loved how it took you through another person's life. I couldn't believe all that information was in this tiny book.

The Library in Walden, NY

By the time I was in about the 2-3 grade, I found libraries. I found I could go there and read a book and be taken anywhere in my imagination. I started to read anything I could get my hands on, so I could read or try to. I say try to because they found when I was in grade 1, I had a learning disability where I had a hard time comprehending what I was reading. Was I reading? Yes, but understanding what you are reading and reading are two different things. Because of this, I was kept back in the first grade and then after this grade kept in the lower graded bracket of classes because of the problem. However, by the time I reached grade 8, I found young adult romance books.

Over the years, I did try and get my nieces and nephews interested in reading. With my nieces, they seemed to get into it a little bit but I put it down to still trying to find the genre they liked. They now love reading and have passed that along to their children. My nephews, they never took to the reading thing as far as I know. I know their mother, Jean, wasn't big into reading and thought it was a waste of time. I have lost contact with those nephews, so I have no idea if they ever took up reading at all.

The you adult books were great because they almost always had a happy ending and I was taken from my not so happy home to places where people did have other problems but they didn't seem as bad as mine and most of the time by the end of the book, they had happy endings. It really took the focus off of my own life and put it some place more optimistic.

By the time I was in high school, I had moved on to reading adult romance novels. I started reading Harlequin Romances and found they were interesting. However, after this some of the other lines from the same company came out and they were more expressive on the sex part and less on the romance and relationship part. Even today, I bounce between different lines. I do both electronic books (iTunes, ibooks, harlequin app, and amazon) and paperbacks but in the last 8 or so years mainly stick with the electronic books due to paperbacks taking up most of the house. In fact today, I still find them in suitcases, closets and nightstands I haven't looked into for awhile.

One thing I am sure of is I'm glad I can read in any language as my grandmother and great grandmother's could not for either most or part of their lives. They missed out on taking adventures or catching up with news because they could not read.

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Aunts and Uncles

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

The prompt for the week is:

Aunts and Uncles

The Brief:

Did you have Aunts and Uncles?
Did you know any of your Great Aunts and Uncles?
Did you have people that you called Aunt and Uncle, yet there was no blood connection at all?

In fact, does that even matter?

So this week, tell us those about those people whose names appear within our family history and perhaps you even had a favourite or two?

Paternal Aunts & Uncles
My father was one of two children my grandparents had. His brother, my Uncle John, I grew up knowing and loving. Myself and my siblings all loved and looked up to our Uncle John and loved our Aunt Jenny. We knew they loved us unconditionally. Unfortunately, once my grandmother passed in late 1980s, I never knew how to get into contact with them. No one ever gave me their address or phone number, so I knew about them, and my cousins, but never knew how to get in contact with them.

My uncle in his classroom during his teaching years.

Thankfully in the early 2000's, I was talking to one of my siblings and they mentioned them. I then asked them how to contact my Uncle and Aunt and they gave me their information. I wrote the information down and talked to my husband about contacting them. I did not know how they'd view me because I hadn't contacted them in so long, but decided to call them anyway to see what type of reception I got. Like always, the reception was loving and unconditional and we sat and talked for over an hour. Unfortunately, I had made time to see one of my nieces, so we had to leave. We were all very glad I had finally made contact and we all vowed we'd never loose contact again.

Sadly, my uncle passed away only 8 months later, in 2002. I always cherish the last visit I had with him and that we had reconnected after so many years. We did make it back to the US for my uncle's funeral ceremonies, and for that my aunt and cousins were so very thankful for.

2002 Small family reunion - 1st cousin to my father (from Germany), My aunt and cousins, my father, and some of my siblings.

In fact, the one time I was pregnant, my aunt was going to come and help me with the new baby, but we "lost" the baby before it was due. It meant so very much to me, my aunt was willing to come from the US to Australia to help me.

Since then, I have always maintained contact with my Aunt and cousins, although we haven't had a chance to visit in person, we've always kept up with each other via email, Facebook and Christmas cards.

Each time we go to the US, we stop by my grandmother's grave to "visit" and then make a "visit" to my Uncle John.

Maternal Aunts & Uncles
My mother was one of 3 children to my grandparents. However, I never knew any of the family, at all, from that side. The sad part about it, is my mother won't talk about any of her family whatsoever, and I'm now wondering why. The last time I did try and get some information from her, she wouldn't talk to me for almost 2 months, so I know I won't be getting any information out of her unfortunately.

Great Aunts and Uncles
As for any great's within the family, there have not been many.

Aunt Honey

On my mother's side, there was a person we called Aunt Honey, which my mother mentioned every now and then when I was very young but then stopped talking about her altogether. There was never a mention of anyone else on that side of the family - ever.

On my father's side, I only know of my grandmother's brothers. One was never talked about very much, but the other I was told was a bad gambler and always called when he needed money. Also, he was wanted by the mob in NYC, and if I ever heard from him I was to hang up and not to listen to him. Recently (2014) I found one of the brothers was buried with his parents in NJ and the other one died of a heart attack in the south. Its sad that I never knew of either of these people.

Non Relational Favourites

There hasn't been many non relational people either. I do have a person we call Aunt Connie and I do go and visit her sometimes when are in NY. I know she was one of many people my mother used to visit and talk to when I was younger.

Another person, which I loved, was relational, but was my eldest sister mother in law - we always called her Ma though. She was great and was full of life. She loved her court room TV, the news, playing her "numbers" in the lottery. Unfortunately, she developed emphysema and later died of complications of it due to smoking cigarettes. I used to go over to visit, play cards, and talk to her. We all still miss her when she passed away in 2009.

Ma holding "court" at her bench.

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.