Christmas Of Old

The one story that sticks out in my mind when Christmas rolls around is the one that my Dad told me about his Christmases as a child.

My Dad was born in 1914 in Somersworth,NH. He was the third child of 10,from my  Pepere ( pronounced Pep-pay) Lessard's first marriage. My father's mother died in 1929 from pneumonia.We always call them the " first batch".

My Pepere Lessard worked,but didn't make a lot of money. He worked at the mill,then worked at the pumping station. My Memere ( pronounced Mem-may) Lessard didn't work,because she stayed home to take care of her children. They were very poor. They got clothes from the church. There were no extras.What they lacked in money,they more than made up for with family. My Memere Lessard  had her parents ( the Magnans) and brothers and sisters nearby,and they were always part of their lives. Some of my Dad's most favorite memories was going over to his Memere and Pepere Magnan's house on Saturdays for dinner and standing around the piano,singing.

Christmas was wonderful for my Dad. Though they didn't get much for gifts,they would wake up on Christmas morning and have a beautifully decorated tree. Memere and Pepere  would put it up while the children were asleep. There were pies,cakes,and all kinds of wonderful things to eat that they normally would not have. The relatives would come over and they would sing,eat,and make merry. My Dad never dwelled on what they didn't  have,it was what they DID have,and because it was not something that was everyday,it made it more special.

When this time of the year rolls around, I am always brought back to this story,and it gives me great pause. Today,we see people trampling each other in stores  to save a few bucks. Stores are now open on Thanksgiving,and to me,it's very sad and wrong. I think of my Dad as a little boy with a pair of mittens and a pretty tree as a gift with plenty of good things to eat being surrounded by a loving family. I also can hear the happiness in his voice when he would tell me about those days. It was enough for him.

This photo is dated around 1919. From left to right: Luminda Magnan ( my great grandmother),my Memere Magnan Lessard,my great Aunt Eva Magnan, my great Aunt Bella Magnan,and my Dad.

Have a fabulous day on this Fabulous Planet!

A Trip Back In Time Part 2

We were at the Chase Mansion last. Now we go next door to the Aldrich House. The Aldrich House was the home to Thomas Bailey Aldrich,a Victorian novelist,poet,and editor.He is most famous for his book "The Story of A Bad Boy." He was born in Portsmouth on Nov 11,1836. He lived with his grandparents,who had friends in various literary  and acting circles. His "grandmother", Mrs Aldrich,was sitting outside the house and told us of how she  met her husband at a party held by the famous actor Edwin Booth (brother to John Wilkes) and informed us that she didn't like Mark Twain,because he was always inebriated and spoke very unkindly about her. The house was built in  1797. 

Coming into the kitchen,the "Good Morning"staircase was to the left. A "Good Morning" staircase is a set of stairs that connect an upstairs bedroom right to the kitchen. They reminded me of my Memere's old house when I was little. The stairs were very steep,and she forbade me to go up them without her (they weren't Good Morning stairs,though).

                              

 This is a fabulous fireplace to cook some food!

                                   Lovely bright sitting room

                                   I loved the pendant chandelier

                                   

                                      The parlor

     

                              I absolutely adore Mrs Aldrich's dress

                                    Such a pretty bedroom!

                           View out the window on the second landing

                          Another bedroom. I loved the various canopy styles

                            A more masculine looking bedroom

The next stop was at the Shapiro House. The Shapiro's a Russian-Jewish immigrant family,lived here in the early 1900's. It was built in  1795. The best room in the house was the kitchen.

                                      Love that old wood cooking stove!

We had just missed "Mrs Shapiro"demonstrating how to bake bread.She had stepped out for a moment. The bread smelled wonderful baking in the oven.

The Pitt Tavern was next. It was built in 1766 . There were several rooms with fireplaces and tables set up.

Some of the distinguished visitors to the Pitt Tavern include George Washington,John Hancock,and the Marquis de Lafayette.

                   A bit of the history of the tavern.

  This house is the Yeaton House. It's in the process of renovation. It was built in 1795. Thales Yeaton,a shopkeeper and tobacconist,lived here in the late 18th century.

This is the Marden-Abbott house and store. It was a neighborhood store during WWII. The building itself was built in 1720.

                                The store was exactly as it was kept during the war

  t was interesting to see how many old labels we could recognize that were still around when we were kids,but are now no longer available.

Behind the store and house there as the Marden-Abbott Garage,which had been converted into a small WWII museum. I loved the various posters.

 Back then,everyone chipped in to help the war effort. They grew victory gardens,had ration stamps,and recycled cans to be made into bullets.

                            I bet most kept the pledge!

By the entrance there was book with the names of civilian defense volunteers. We discovered that Rick's grandfather,Ray Shaw,was an Air Raid Warden. How cool is that? It was so random...there his name was. We poured through the other pages to see if any other family members were listed. I am not sure if Edwin or Oren are related :)

This was my favorite poster. It promoted working for the war effort,saving rubber by walking and not driving,conserving what you have,and buying war bonds.

Our last installment will show one of the oldest homes left in NH-built in 1695.

Have a fabulous day on this Fabulous Planet!

Compost Bin Is Done...And So Is Our Tom

Rick finished up the compost bin on Friday afternoon. The area is now nice and clear,and the tractor can get in and out. We have three sections: soil on the left,and the breaking down areas in the middle and to the right:

Rick didn't want to put side walls up on the ends,because he wanted to be able to access the piles from either angle with the tractor to dump and turn compost,or to retrieve soil for the garden. Good plan. He just used old pallets,held them together with rope,and used some lumber to support the back.Finally! That area is cleaned up and all our composting and composted materials are where they should be!

Sunday evening it finally started to rain.I left the bedroom window open a bit,and it was fabulous to wake up during the night and hear the rain outside. Monday it rain all day,and though we desperately needed it,it would've been more beneficial to have a a few days of good,slow,leisurely rain than one day of downpours.At this point,however,we will take whatever we can get!!! The grass did start greening up,and we have seen more leaves on the trees.

Yesterday we had to take care of our Tom.One of the females (we had 2) died,because the Tom wouldn't let her eat,apparently.He was also getting very aggressive when anyone went near the cage,and jumped up towards the door of the cage with his talons front and center. Not good. It was long overdue,anyway. So Zach did the deed,and after Tom was dead we weighed him-he was 50 lbs! We had to cut him up to get the meat into the fridge,and we still didn't almost have enough space. He was a big'un!!!

Tuesday we went down to North Hampton to visit Rick's Dad Dick,and Brother Spencer. Dick was kind enought dig out the old Shaw family bible so I could double check some dates:

The bible was given to Rick's great x 3 grandmother for Christmas in 1873.It has beautiful illustrations in it that still have tissue paper over them. Marriages,births,and deaths all have their proper pages,in lovely handwritten script.(My dates were right,by the way)

Yesterday I brought Zach down to my Mom's for an overnight visit,and I stayed for lunch and chatted. She had just returned the previous day from VA. My great nephew had his christening,and Mom went down with my sister and her husband (they are the grandparents). Zach always likes visiting his Nana. She is going to bring him back today. We had an early morning as we had to be down in Manchester for an 8:00 AM eye appt for Rick. His double vision is starting to go away,which is good. This was just an annual checkup.

Today I am going to start my cukes and pumpkins.

Rick And Donna's Excellent Adventure

Friday Rick and I went down to Boston for Rick's psych eval for the Temporary Disabled Retirement List.(He already had his physical eval last month) Every solider that is diagnosed with PTSD gets put on this list for a maximum of 5 years. At anytime in that 5 years,the military can send the solider to a Dr for an update,to see if that solider is getting better. It's beneficial if the solider has just been wounded and receives help right away.This is not our case,but you do what you have to do.

I cannot drive in Boston.I did it once,and almost had a nervous breakdown. If it was a matter of life and death,I would do it,but only if all other avenues were exhausted. So we decided to take the train down. It wasn't cheap ($70 round trip) but well worth it for my nerves. Plus,I knew that I would have to be the strong one,so I didn't want to be a mess for Rick when I knew he was going to be relying on me to get him from point A to B and back again.

We arrived at the Amtrak Downeaster station in Dover early enough for me to take a photo of Rick in front of the office:

Here she comes,ready to bring us to North Station in Boston:

The train ride was very comfortable,and took roughly an hour and a half. We had 5 stops before we reached North Station. One great thing was that they sold subway tickets (called the "T" in Boston) right on the train,so we didn't have to try and buy them at North Station. We each bought a "Charlie Card" with gives you a round trip on the subway. Rick was very nervous,and I was too,but not as nervous as I thought I would be. I guess the fact that Rick was depending on me pushed all that to the side. Bless his heart,I did get a bit impatient with him a few times on the way down and when we were trying to find our subway. When Rick gets overwhelmed,even if you give him correct information,he will ask questions over and over. It's not that he doesn't trust what I am saying,it's that he's trying to get everything straight and calm himself down.

It was fairly nerve racking when we got off the train at North Station.Thankfully,our train arrived there at 10:30 AM,and our appt wasn't until 3:00PM,so we had plenty of time to find where we were going. The first thing we did was look around in the station to get our bearings,then we went to find the Green Line,which,we discovered,was on the next street over. Rick was already pinging-lots of people,not being sure of where everything was. We found the Green Line,swiped our Charlie Cards to get through the turnstile,then tried to figure out where the E train was,as well as if we were going Outbound or Inbound (we were going Inbound-into the city,we figured out).Thankfully,we weren't the only people who had no clue as to what was going on,because we had people approach us asking if we knew what train to take to the Flower Show in town,and another lady was on the way to a job interview. She told me her life story as we waited for the trains.She lost her job as a dental assistant when her boss had to stop work to care for a family member who had cancer. I hope she found her interview and did well on it.

We found the E train,looked at the map in the car and found that our stop (Arlington) was the fifth stop on the way. We sat down,and that is where I made a big mistake. I should've let Rick sit by the window and put myself by the aisle. However, I did the opposite,and because the train was crowded,a lady was standing up next to Rick holding on to a pole. She was so close to him that if he turned his head to the right,his head would've been right in her cleavage. He kept muttering,"I don't like this,I don't like this,I'm ready to lose it." I put my hand his leg and told him it wouldn't be long,only a few minutes. Our stop came,and Rick was one might happy camper.(The fact that he doesn't like tunnels,and here we were in a subway,did not help matters,either). Once we got out of the station,and got our bearings,we walked down Arlington St to Melrose to find out where this Dr Ira Lable was. Rick almost got hit by a taxi...though we were in the crosswalk AND walking to the WALK light.

Bay Village (which I have no photos for because of course,my camera battery died) has lovely Federal style townhouses.Edgar Allen Poe was born there. We found the address,then tried to find a restaurant. We settled on an Italian restaurant,which,come to find out,had gluten free pasta,so Rick was quite happy. He had Shrimp Scampi,and I had Baked Ziti,Both were delicious,and it gave us time to sit and decompress a bit. Rick,of course, was still quite nervous about the Dr's appt,but he seemed in better spirits after we ate. We had plenty of time to kill,so we decided to stroll over to the Public Garden and Boston Common to walk off our pasta.

One thing that amazed us was how fast everything is down there. The traffic,the pedestrians...I couldn't live like that. All we could smell when you couldn't smell food was exhaust. Rick commented that everyone was dressed alike,and we noticed that he was the only person who was wearing plaid. Not business appropriate,I suppose :) Give me my quiet little house where I can breathe fresh air and see the milky way above my house!

The weather was gray and bit raw,which was too bad,but we still enjoyed ourselves.The first thing Rick noticed was all the squirrels in the Public Garden-gray ones,blondish ones,even an white Albino one.There were hundreds!They weren't shy either. They would a come up to us,get on their hind legs,and beg. I missed this little guy begging, but I still took his photo nonetheless. Rick joked,"We could eat for a year in a this place!!!"  There was herds of them. I've never seen anything like it.

After we walked the Public Garden,we went across the street to Boston Common:

I thought that the view of the park with the skyscrapers in the background made an interesting photo:

We found the cemetery with no problem. I had also read that the Central Burying Ground was home to a mass grave of British soldiers who were killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill,but when we walked around in the cemetery,we couldn't find any mention of it:

We did find some interesting tombstones,however:

Many tombstones had been worn by time and were illegible. Some were broken,either by age or vandals. Quite a few were for children,which was very sad. This one caught the eye of Rick:

It's hard to read,but it's in memory of a 19 year old Chinese boy who died when he fell from the mast of the ship Mae that he was working on in 1709. His master had the stone erected .

Then,this stone caught our eye:

It reads "Here lies the body of Fanny Webster,daughter of Josiah and Sarah Webster of Rye NH,died October 16,1805,16 yrs." Why would this catch our eye? Rick is related to Daniel Webster,and the Websters were from Rye,NH. I wrote down the info to do some research on later.

We still had lots of time to kill,so we walked back to the Public Garden and saw this iconic image of Boston:

Many folks have seen this before,and I always thought that it was an homage to Paul Revere and his famous ride. It's not. It's George Washington. You learn something new everyday.

At this point,it's 1:30,and it's starting to get real raw out. After sitting on a park bench for a few minutes,we decided to hit Finale,which is a place that has desserts.(And gluten free ones!) I had some chocolate type thing,and Rick had raspberry cheesecake (no crust). We each enjoyed a hot cup of coffee and warmed up a bit. At 2:15,we decided to go to the Dr's office.

Dr Lable is an older gentlemen,I would say in his sixties or seventies,and he had about 15 pages of questions that the military sent for him to fill out. He also read through the reports that the VA sent him. He was very nice,and we answered the questions easily : Do you get confused? Do you do things repetitively? Do you have nightmares?  etc,etc. At the end,the Dr said to Rick "Well, you certainly have been through a lot. I agree with the assessment that you have full blown PTSD and a moderate Brain Injury. I'll write up my report and send it out. I wish you the best of luck.The military should put you on full retirement." We thanked him for his time and walked back to the Arlington train station,hopped on the Green Line yet again (we waited for the least full train) and arrived at North Station,breathing sighs of relief that this was finally over. On the Amtrak back to Dover,I was wiped out-I snoozed a tiny bit while Rick played Solitaire on my Kindle. Any game like that is good for his brain function.It helped him decompress a bit. I was quite happy to arrive in Dover,get in the car,and drive back home.

So...we did it! We survived our Excellent Adventure. Now we wait to see what the military will say.

By the way...Fanny Webster is related to Rick.She is his third cousin 6 generations removed.

Special Day

Saturday was Zach's 14th birthday. His request for his birthday dinner was lasagna (which I made gluten free) and he wanted devil's food cake with chocolate frosting (which Rick made non gluten free). Late morning Zach and I visited my Mom,who is doing great. We had some lunch and a nice chat. She was amazed at how much Zach has grown since she saw him last,which was Christmas time.

Rick and I wanted to get Zach something for his birthday that he would use for school,and we decided to get him his own laptop. We found a new line of Toshiba on sale at Staples and purchased Office for Students. More and more of his schoolwork involves using the computer-graphs for science class,reports,etc. He was quite excited and surprised!

Zach was officially 14 at 8:03 AM. He was a C-section baby,with a planned date of delivery. He was breech,and at my last regular appt,my Dr told me that they could either manually turn him which 1)would be very painful and 2)probably wouldn't work,since most first babies seem to turn right back to breech again,or they could just schedule a C-section. I opted for the C section. It was very strange the night of March 2 sitting at home knowing that it was the last evening where it would be just two of us-that the next time I came back into the house I would have a baby in tow,and our lives would be changed forever. Zach was gorgeous when he was born. The nurses wanted to give him a 10 on the newborn scale,but the Dr told them "we never give out 10's"-so they rated him an 8 and a 9. He stayed in the room with me,and everyone kept telling me to rest and take a nap,but I wasn't tired in the least. They were also amazed that I wasn't asking for more pain medication!

We also have a new member of the family,born on Zach's birthday. We have a new great niece,Farrah Marie Lussier-Shaw. Rick's nephew Dwight and his girlfriend Tiara are the proud parents. So now Zach and Farrah are bound not just by genetics,but by the same birth date! Welcome to the family,Farrah!

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.

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!

When It Rains,It Pours

Didn't I say in my last post that it was rainy and raw? Well,the raw didn't last and turned into humidity. It has been rainy and humid here the last couple of days,and right now we are on the tail end of a tropical depression that inched it's way up the eastern seaboard.There are flood watches,though mostly in the western part of the state.Tomorrow is suppose to be a much better day,sunny,and cooler.Right now it is down pouring. I love to hear the rain,though.Especially when I am trying to sleep and I can hear it on the roof. Very soothing.

We have been gearing up for winter,working down our list. Wednesday we had our oil tank topped off. Yesterday we had our septic tank pumped out. Then,our well water finally went below the suction level,so we weren't getting any water. This summer has been very dry,and our well was getting low to start with ( we have a dug well). We don't know if the spring that flows to the well has gotten smaller,or if a rock settled in it somewhere blocking the flow,but our well has been getting lower and lower for the last three years. We are not the only ones who have been seeing lower water levels. Happily,our neighbor Darlene had used a company who fills pools,wells,etc,and she gave us their number. He was at the house within 6 hours,and filled our well up. So we now have plenty of wood for three years,a full oil tank,an empty septic,and a full well.

I made pumpkin puree on Wednesday. It was much easier than I thought it would be. I used two Sugar pumpkins (but one at a time). I cut it in half,cleaned out the seeds and stringy goop,then cut it into quarters. I placed the quarters in a microwave dish,with a couple inches of water. I put the lid on the dish,and cooked it for 15 minutes on high. I then cooked it for 10 minutes on high,and the pieces were soft enough to poke with a fork.The rind came off easily,and I attempted to puree it in my blender. I should have known better.That blender never worked well (it was free) and even though the blade spun,it would do nothing (I had a flash back to trying to make icy drinks in vain). I threw it out. I have only used the blender twice in the last 5 years,so spending money to have it fixed wasn't something that popped into my head. A food processor might be a more worthy investment. I used my hand mixer and it worked well. I measured out 1 3/4 cups of puree for each freezer bag ( 1 3/4 cups is roughly 15 oz,the size of a can of pumpkin).Now I have two freezer bags ready for use. The first batch wasn't watery,but the second one was,so I pressed the puree down with my hands,pushing out the water ,and poured the excess down the drain.

Yesterday I began organizing my closet,and finally decided to get rid of clothes that I have been hanging on to in the hope that they will someday fit,clothes that are stained,or clothes that aren't comfortable but bought because I needed something for an occasion. They are piled up in a box,and I am going to bring them to the local CAP office. Now if I can just get Rick to do the same...... :) I do need to go through my genealogy papers,and this winter I am going to finally get all that information onto my family tree maker program. I also need to go through our file cabinet and see how I can improve upon the files. We have mulitple copies of things,because the military would always lose documents.However,we have a copy machine and we really don't need to keep 10 copies of Rick's Purple Heart orders on hand,for instance. We can use any unneeded papers for fire starter,or for scrap paper. Whichever comes first. Again,that will be a winter project.

Right now I am in the process of making gluten free pie crust for an apple pie. The crust has to chill for an hour. While that is going on,I am washing Zach's bedding,then I should do some ironing.One load is in the dryer,the other in the washer.Rick will probably have to roll out the crust,though.Rolling crust and I don't mix. I wind up trying it several times and he always has to rescue me!He seems to have the magic touch.

Well, I need to go get the apples ready,so I should scoot. Have a great day in your place in the world!

Happy Fourth of July

230 years ago, a group of men who were considered traitors began what became the United States of America.
I wonder what they would think if they saw how far this country has come since then? I think they would be completely flabbergasted at what their little 13 colonies became.
Sometimes I wonder what their lives were like. I'd love to hop into a time machine and check it out.It would be nice if I could go to see a relative, but none of my ancestors arrived in America until the 1870's. I do have some Abenaki heritage,but I have yet to figure out if it stems from Canada or the US.My Dad's side (Lessard,Magnan) and my Mom's side,(Charrette, Thompson)come from Canada,though I do have some Irish and Scottish thrown in there.
Rick,on the other hand,has a long family history in America. His family has been in the US since the 1620's. A member of his family has fought in every war since the French and Indian Wars. On his Dad's side ( Shaw,Batchelder) of the family,great x 10 grandfather Steven Batchelder was a founder of Hampton,NH. He was a persecuted Reverend in England. Daniel Webster,Ben Franklin,Gerald Ford,and Richard Nixon are distant cousins,but still in the tree. On his Mother's side ( McQuilkin,Pratt),the McQuilkins arrived in Maine in the early 1800's from Ireland,and the Pratts arrived in the third ship after the Mayflower,on the Anne.
However,even though Rick's heritage in this country is far more lengthy and interesting,my ancestors fought and struggled in this country as well. Fought not just in wars,but in daily life trying to achieve their American dream. They appreciated and respected the rights that the founding fathers put forth.
" We hold these truths to be self evident,that all men are created equal,that they are endowed by their Creator,with certain,unalienable Rights. That among these are Life,Liberty,and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Happy Birthday,America!!!!!