Happy 65th Anniversary

On January 25,1947,my parents were married in Somersworth,NH. My Dad,Albert Martin Lessard,was born on September 27,1914 and passed away from complications due to Alzheimer's on September 4,1990.My Mom,Doris Louise Charrette,was born on December 11,1925.

My parents were born to French Canadian lineage. In fact,they are second generation Americans. All my great grandparents were born in Quebec. On my Dads' side,there is a bit of Native American and Irish thrown in. On my Mom's,some Scottish.

Both my parents only received an eighth grade education. My Dad quit school at age 14,after his mother died,to go to work at the bleachery to help support the family. My Mom did receive her eighth grade diploma,and went to work at Somersworth Shoe.Both went through the Great Depression. My Dad had it a bit harder than my Mom,because the family was much bigger. They received help from the church. My Dad's brother,Valmore,went into the Civilian Conservation Corp,and in fact,stayed up in Tamworth at the CCC camp were the Boy Scouts now have several events. It's strange to think my Uncle lived there at one point.

My Dad went into the service,and was sent to New Guinea during World War II. He was gone for three years.He came home,and met my Mom through her Uncle.My Dad and her Uncle served in the same unit overseas.

They courted and were married. My mother was actually engaged to someone else when they met,but apparently found my Dad more intriguing.

My parents were blue collar workers all their lives.I never knew what my parents earned. I know it wasn't much. I asked once what they made,and my father told me that "We don't ask what people make for a living." Fair enough.

We had a house,a car,plenty of food,and clothes on our backs. When we wanted something,we would get it on our birthdays or Christmas.My folks raised four children-Valmore,Linda,Dennis,and myself. My mother was,and still is,a very basic kind of lady. I suppose it's from being raised during the Depression.No frills. She has what she needs. Any extra is just something that she will have to dust. A true Yankee.

I miss my Dad. He was very jovial and loved to tell stories,at least until the Alzheimer's took that away from him. He loved quizzing me about history,and that instilled a love of history in me.

I still miss my Dad quite a bit. I wish he was here so I could wish him a Happy Anniversary.

Mulling Things Over

Things around here have been pretty low key.Rick's meds continue to mess with him a bit. Saturday he went to his Asst Scoutmaster training,and the only down side was that it was in a small room with no windows. Rick has a hard time in rooms like that,but he made it through A-OK. He was wiped out when he got home,though,and he took a nap. 

Sunday,the Menfolk,Zach,and our next door neighbor Kelly decided to go up the road to Shaw Pond (no relation!)to do some ice fishing.We actually have enough ice now on most lakes and ponds to walk on them,but there are still some areas where the ice is not thick enough yet. Fortunately, Shaw Pond has a good 4" or so of ice,so they were good to go. They tried to talk me into going,but I  declined. I am not an outdoor winter person. I used to be in my youth,I loved sledding and being in the snow. Now, not so much. I prefer being warm in my house. The males were gone for at least four hours and had a great time!

Zach,Brother B,and Rick setting up traps

                                                                     Pulling up a fish                                  
 

                                                                        Pickerel!

They used Kelly's equipment,but Zach enjoyed it so much that Rick bought a couple of traps for he and Zach so they don't have to keep using Kelly's.

Also on Sunday,like any good New Englander,we watched the Patriots and the Ravens,holding our breath until the very end when the Raven's missed the field goal. Now we look forward to beating the Giants in the Super Bowl (sorry,New York fans)!

As for me,my project of late was making  some pot holders..

My potholders are in very sad shape. They are to the point where even washing them doesn't get them clean anymore. So instead of buying a pair,I made them. While I knitted,Rick and I started to mull over our plan for our garden this year. We need to order some new seeds-we have had some for three years now and it's time to get fresh ones. Instead of buying two types of lettuce,etc,we are only going to grow one kind. While we are going to cut back on variety,we are not going to cut back on quantity. We may forgo peas this year,too-to be honest,I am not a fan of fresh peas...maybe it's because I grew up with canned ones my whole life. I do love fresh green beans,though. I also need to be more on top of staggered planting this year. I hope that it doesn't take so long for the garden area to dry out this Spring.Last year we couldn't prep the area until late May.It was like a bog out back. Seeing such little snow this year,however,I assume that this spring will not be quite as wet. We also discussed whether or not we are going to make syrup this year,and we decided that we will give it shot yet again. We now  know that we need to boil the syrup a bit longer, to get it a bit more full flavored,and it needs to be canned,otherwise it doesn't last that long and gets moldy.Lessons learned,my friends!

Have a Fabulous Day on this Fabulous Planet!!!

Delving Into The Past

Things have been pretty quiet here the last few days. We did get a few inches of snow this week. Old Man Winter is a bit behind schedule this year. Zach was on the Boy Scout shovel list for the second snowfall,so we went down to the Grange where we have our meetings to shovel the walkways. There is a church in the Grange building as well. It's our Troop's duty to keep the area clean in the winter so the church folk and the Grange and Odd Fellows can have a clear pathway to their services/meetings. We only have two shovels,so Zach shoveled the walkway,Rick chipped the ice and then he spread some sand that we had for our driveway. I had the hard job of playing solitaire on my Kindle in the warm truck. :)

This morning Rick has gone down to Farmington for the first part of the Asst.Scoutmaster training.He is a bit nervous because he is not familiar with who is going to be there,and he hasn't been to the school in which it's going to be held in a long time,so it's like being in a strange place all over again. His hyper vigilance goes up in situations like this,but he has to dive right in and not avoid them. He's a trooper. 

Yesterday I spent a good portion of the day on my Family Tree Maker. I discovered in my Ancestry.com account that someone had sent me an email regarding my great grandfather Lessard,and come to find out,this person is actually a cousin of mine. Of course,I rarely get into my Ancestry.com email account,so this email was rather old (Sept) and the info they were asking for they had already found and posted. This led me to delve into my side of the family,and I discovered that I had some wrong info,which I corrected,but the new info was amazing-I have 7th great grandfather who was abducted by Native Americans from ME and brought to Canada.His mother and six siblings were killed at their home,and his Dad,who was fisherman by trade,was gone at the time. Now that is quite a find!

This is pile of genealogy papers I have:

Remember my goal was do get all these papers into the file cabinet in folders so I can just pull things up quickly. I brought the pile (which was quite heavy) to the computer desk,plopped everything down,and stared at it:

Where do I start? I figured the loose papers would be the best bet,and,to be honest,the easiest. How to separate them though?.Many families had to merge to form the family of Albert Lessard and Doris Charrette or the Richard F Shaw Sr and Barbara McQuilkin family. I figured the easiest thing to do would be make folders with our grandparents last names,then any names that were in their lineage I would put into that folder. So I have (for my family) Lessard,Charrette,Magnan and Thompson and for Rick,Shaw,Batchelder,Pratt, and McQuilkin. It worked well for the loose papers,then I had a few notebooks that I could just tear the pages out of and put in those folders.

Then I hit a snag.

I have couple of notebooks which are packed full,and divided by family. And the binders are the same. Hmmm.Seems like ripping all the info out would be a waste of organization. At this point,my brain was on overload,so I put everything on top of the printer and stopped for the day. Then,like I mentioned, I spent a good part of  yesterday working on info. So the pile is still on top of the printer.The filled notebooks I could fit into the file cabinet,and one of folders,but I have a big binder that won't fit.Maybe I can lay it down on bottom of the drawer.

Time also to start thinking about ordering new seeds for the garden. We have had ours for three years. Time to start fresh!