Celebration of Life

The next time you visit a cemetery, attend a memorial, or observe Memorial Day think about life, not death.  Imagine the lifestye of your ancestors; Could you live under those conditions?  I have noticed that on these ocassions we feel the need to share stories about the dead.  Mostly about how someone died?  Please allow me to tell you how my family lived! 

My great grandmother, Julia Ellen Campbell, lived for one hundred years.  Her long life span gave me the opportunity to have met her and six generations of her family.  Can you imagine?  This women seen everything from the first cook stove to man on the moon!  As a child, I remember her ways of perfection from her dress to her speech.  She had been a school teacher when she was a young lady.  At that time, an education equivalent to sixth grade was efficient to teach. 

I have a collection of letters that were sent to and from my great grandmother, my grandfather, my great aunts, uncles and my parents.  They are so interesting to read.  Many family “secrets”, (gossip) about siblings and cousins is really fun to read.  Also, the handwriting styles and their grammar is very different.  Julia’s letters were written very well with good grammar and beautiful handwriting.  My grandfather and great aunts and uncles  (her children) were barely able to get their point across.  The words were very simple and they were printed in a mixture of capital and lower case letters. 

Julia’s son, my grandfather (Solomon Wesley Griffin) raised three boys.  He never drove an automobile or tractor.  So, He had many funny stories about his neighbors having run away events with their automobiles.  In the early 1960’s he still plowed his garden with a big white horse.  My Dad and Uncle ran the farm and my Grandfather was constantly worried about them and the equipment.  It was a perfect example of fearing what you do not know.  In my Grandfather’s lifetime he saw everything from a stationary horse head hay baler to the modern round balers that are pulled with tractors.  He seen eight decades of improvements with the hay baling equipment.  But, even with all the modern advances, he still carried a pitch fork to gather the loose hay left around the perimeter of the meadow.  He couldn’t stand the waste of the modern way of haying.

Today, my Dad is amazed by the technology of cell phones, computers, and even tractors that use GPS to farm.  Just think, my Great Grandmother never seen a tractor, my Grandfather never drove a tractor, and my Dad has seen a tractor drive on auto pilot! 

Years from now, when my grand daughter visits the graves. Someone may ask her, “How did they die?”.  Hopefully, She will answer, “I don’t know, my grandmother only told me how they lived.”