With Learning comes Understanding

Aaron and I made a trip this weekend. It was a trip to explore and visit. Where did we go? We drove all over Indiana. We arrived Thursday night at my parent's house in Indy around midnight. Friday morning we drove to Richmond, Indiana to visit my dad and grandparents. Friday night we were back in Indy for my friend Julia's graduation party. Saturday morning we met friends for breakfast. From breakfast we went to my grandparent Gaither's for the big family Christmas. Yeah, I ended up with a pizza stone sheet in the gift exchange. From the party we went straight to French Lick for Aaron's work party. We spent the night at the hotel where we had the party. Sunday morning we woke up and drove up to Bloomington to visit CGS for the church service. It was so good to see everyone. We went out to lunch with our good friends Steve & Melinda. We ate at O'Charley's. O, how I missed that restaurant. After lunch we went to check on the duplex. We saw too many leaves not having been raked, a kitchen floor that needs mopped, carpet that could use another go through with our carpet cleaner, the water turned off (Aaron turned it back on), a dirty toilet, fallen down for sale signs, and a few other things of such. And we thought no one was living there. Needless to say, we will be making another trip in January. We then proceeded by driving up to my parent's house for our gift exchange with them. I'm excited about my floor mat for cutting cloth for my sewing projects and my new pair of scissors and our new knife set. We left Indy around 5pm and got home around 9pm. It was such a good trip.

WHAT DID WE EXPLORE?

We took a trip back into Erica's history. Basically, we interviewed my dad. God has given me a heart change concerning him. I'm not going to write about it all in here. I desire for him to know Christ. In talking with people and after questioning my dad on a few things, this is not going to be a one time talk with him. It must first start with the rebuilding of a relationship with him. This rebuilding may even be one-sided. It is a walk I must walk, not only for him but for myself. I need answers and with learning the answers I can come to a better understanding of my dad and of myself. I plan to keep track of what I am learning on this blog knowing that to my knowledge no one on my dad's side of the family reads this blog. If they do, well it is all history and facts anyway from my dad's point of view.

Q. Did the grandparents take you to church much growing up?
A. Yes, they did.

Q. Were they Baptists?
A. Yes

Q. I remember going to a 50th anniversary of some sort for grandpa, what it with his church or something?
A. No, he was part of the Masons. (I plan on looking into more of what the Masons are about)

Q. What are the Masons?
A. That's hard to explain. (Basically between Aaron and my dad they said it was an order, frat-like thing)

At this point I could see he wasn't really wanting to go into detail in this area. As he was up getting his food at the buffet, Aaron and I discussed and both agreed the relationship needed to be rebuilt. I needed to be the one to initiate regardless of my dad's lacking to call, visit or inviting me to visit. I did go into other areas of asking questions to learn more about him, my grandparents and myself. My dad is one of short answers, so this makes it a little more difficult. These are other questions I asked, but they are probably not in the order I asked them. I may leave out a few unaware and may not be asked or answered in the same way they were in person. I just want record of what I remember currently.

Q. Was grandpa in WWII or any other wars, I know he went through the Depression?
A. No, during WWII he was in CC Camps. (This is another thing I plan on researching. My grandpa at one time already told me this, but I couldn't remember the name of the camps. I know he was stationed in California.)

Q. What were the grandparents like as parents?
A. That's hard to say. Grandpa didn't have the nerves for us kids.

Q. Did he have a bad temper?
A. Yes, he lost it often. (This explains my Uncle Johnny's & dad's temper. I have also lost my temper in the past and I know this is something I have to watch. God has done a huge work in this area of my life & still continues to work on it.)

Q. How did grandma take his temper?
A. She took it with a grain of salt.

Q. Were you a close family?
A. No, that is why I have always tried to be close to you girls. (When we were young he did try to be close by talking with us. As we grew older he started backing away. I always regretted he rarely joined into our lives, but now I understand it is harder to give something when you were never given it yourself.)

At one point I told him I was asking questions just because I didn't know much about family history. I told him that even with my mom, I knew few stories about her growing up years. I know she had a hard childhood and grandpa was harsh. He told me another story about my mom and her dad that I had never heard before.

One time my mom was told to pick up her toys and she disobeyed. My grandpa threw all her toys away. My granny got mad and kicked him out of the house. (This short story explains a lot about why my mom was how she was raising us and why her and my step-dad use to have power struggles. This isn't anything bad about my mom, because I love her to death & she did a great job with what she had.)

Q. Did grandpa have a heart attack or something at one time or another? I remember as a kid seeing his scar on his chest and asking him questions. I don't remember the answer and of course the answer was probably in little kid terms.
A. No, he didn't have a heart attack. He had triple bipass surgery.

At one time my dad, Aaron and I got on the coversation of travelling. My dad said he had never been out of the country except for Mexico.

Q. What was in Mexico?
A. My buddy and I went down there to start a (he paused) whorehouse. But we discovered soon that it was harder than we thought. We couldn't come up with the money.

Q. How long ago was that?
A. I was in my twenties.

Q. How long were you there?
A. Only a couple months.

Q. If you could visit any country, what country would it be?
A. I don't remember correctly, but I think he said Italy and Austrailia.

I asked questions also regarding my grandparent's work history.

Q. Was grandma always a stay-at-home mom or did she work at a nursing home at one time or another?
A. After us boys were grown she worked as a nurses aide and for awhile she worked for a place that sold wire.

Q. Where did grandpa work?
A. Avco, they use to make refridgerators, but then later started making things for the government.

This is all I remember for now. I may add later if I remember more. I have thought about putting at the top of each of my blogs a memory for the day. These would be memories of my childhood or of things I remember others telling me about themself or about me.

Memory of today:

I remember very few things of when my parents were married and together. I remember our dog having puppies on our chair. We discovered them when we came home from some event or another. When my parents split up my dad took the only male puppy to live with him at his barbershop. When my dad put him outside one day, he was stolen.