Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Research

This a non polish post, feel free to skip!!  Mr. Ski and I have been watching "The Pacific" on HBO and it got me curious.  I know his grandfathers were both in the Navy around that time, so I asked him if they were in the war.  His maternal grandfather was a cook on a Navy ship, that's how he came to America.  (he was from the Philippines.)  His paternal grandfather was a Seabee, and I knew that he was stationed on a base in Antarctica during the 1960's, but that's all I knew.  Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago, so I couldn't ask him.  Mr. Ski told his grandmother that I was curious, and she told him that his grandfather was at on Island X( the family wasn't told the name of the island, and he refused to talk about it) around the time the marines invaded, and helped rebuild the airfield.  I spent a few hours last night googling information, and couldn't come up with much.  I am sad that I cannot talk to him and find out more, I am very interested in this period of our history.  Apparently he had nightmares for years and didn't even speak of it to his family, Mr. Ski's grandmother has pieced things together over the years by talking to people he served with.   I miss Grandpa Ski, and I wish I had talked to him more about things he had done in his life, and I wish the same for Mr. Ski's maternal grandfather. (he also passed away a few years ago.)  I am going to be sure to speak to my grandfather more often about these things, as I realize that he will not live forever, even though I want him to!

I urge all of you to talk to your grandparents (or any older family member) about their life while you have the chance.  You never know what interesting things they have done!

Until later,
Amberski

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have been out of touch with others blogs these last few days & just catching up on my reading. It is interesting to learn family history. I always tell my dad his life story should be a book.

~Elizabeth aka Lacquered Lizard said...

Mr. bright and I hehehehe (copied you!) recently had a few days to spend with is paternal grandmother who had amassed quite a stash of recordings and video from back when she was 30+ (she was 94 or so) and we all watched while she told us what was happening. Mr. bright's grandpa was a cowboy singer who traveled to schools and sang about "clean living" back in the day. Cowboy Glenn was his name. Was cool to learn that stuff. As for my side of the family, my cousin has a ton of stories from growing up with my mother and her sisters (there were 8!!) Family history is so interesting!