Minneapolis, Minnesota is a beautiful city.  It is "the City of Lakes".  When I grew up in South Minneapolis, we had several lakes real close by that had swimming beaches and fishing from the banks available to us.  In the winter the lakes of course would be iced over, and skating rinks were cleared of snow.  For safety reasons I suppose, the stopped doing that and started flooding areas in the parks around the lakes for skating rinks.  They came with warming houses which were a wonderful time of taking the chill . . . . not lets rephrase that. . . .  the penetrating COLD, that would overtake whatever heat your body was trying to maintain while outside.  It would LOOK real nice out with the sun shining and all, but it was probably sub zero real temps.  They also had hockey rinks flooded for those with athletic skating abilities.  I was NOT one of those.  As I remember it, there were about 10 long blocks to a mile in Minneapolis.  At least that was the "Urban legend" of distance.  By that standard, I lived on 37th Street and Lake Hiawatha was about 44th or so.  It has been many years since I've been in Minneapolis, so forgive me. That would have been only a half mile walk. After an hour or two of skating and playing in the snow, that half mile walk home seemed a lot longer, I'll tell ya!

In the summer time, it was much nicer except for the mosquitoes.  I remember as a little kid, seeing jeeps driving down the streets spraying to kill those blood suckers.  What a fog they created.  EPA rules of course prevent that from happening now. Watching the 4th of July fireworks was always a two edged sword.  I love to see the display, but it came with a price.  That price was a body full of mosquito bite welts.  I was allergic to those critters.  But the rest of the seasons were pretty nice.  The Spring and the Fall were cooler, the colors in the fall were great.  For a while we even burned our raked leaves in the gutter of the street.  That was always fun. I had the fire watch to make sure it didn't spread.  Responsibility.  Made me feel grown up.

When I went over to Grandma and Grandpa Rockart's house I was allowed to explore the area close to the river that was like a jungle to me.  My imagination was pretty peaked in those years.  I loved following the barely visible trails that had been made, imagining all kinds of stories as I moved through "the wilds".  It was even more fun when we were able to get over to "the Falls", as there was a stream that went from Minnehaha Falls to the river and along the way were limestone caves and all kinds of neat places to explore.  So I guess I had a pretty active imagination to go along with the parks and trails that Minneapolis provided.

Minnehaha Falls, 1965

Now isn't that a pretty picture?  Some years it was pretty dry, but this is what I remember and that is just fine.  I think that we all have memories of our childhood that gives us a "worm fuzzy feeling".  In reality it could be something completely different though.  Have you ever had that happen?  Kind of a let down wasn't it.  I think that is why pictures are always good to have.  Since I have been writing this blog, it has gotten me off my butt and back to scanning family history through the media of film. I have a whole photo box full of "Gary's Memories".  Through the Photoshop program, I am able to easily restore the photos to near original tone values.  We all understand about those old colored pictures fade or turn yellowish brown.  That is what the Falls picture looked like before I clicked on "AUTO COLOR".  Makes me look like a computer guru or something! ha ha

I suggest to y'all, that you start (if not already) restoring your family memories and get them safely tucked away on several media....like a CD, flash drive, or even a DVD if you got lots and lots.  Then distribute them to your other family members so there is, hopefully, a copy that floats around in the future, for our descendants to look at and admire.  I wish I had done this years ago because some of the pictures were damaged over time.  I also wish I had asked my parents more family history questions before they left us.  If you still have your folks with you, ASK NOW!  Get it written down and get pictures if you can.  Family History is important. It gives you a foundation of information on how you got to where you came from.

I feel sorry for those that are not interested in family heritage.  It is almost too sad to think about.  I wish I knew more of where my grandparents came from.  Where were their parents and grandparents from? What did they do?  What part of the world did they come from?  We are not alone in this world.  We did not all of a sudden appear.  Even if there are no "famous" folks in our lineage, isn't it interesting to know what  kind of folks came before us?  This is one reason (among many as it turns out) that I am doing what I am doing now with this journey through my like via blog.  There is a Saffell, Arkansas.  Someday, I will go there to do a little more digging and see what I can find about family.  They have a family reunion (or used to according to my Mom) every year.  Some year I will take a short trip and see what can be seen and learn what can be learned.

Point of this story is:  To show Sue a picture of Minnehaha Falls.  In addition, some more family history and thoughts from me on why I think family history is so important.  God's plan from the beginning was based on FAMILY.  It is our support system. I is our life blood.  It is where we learn how to interact with other people and their families (sometimes).  Then thinking even further, we are part of God's family, through our relationships that we develop, we are able to have extended families. All these parts and pieces teach us how to share, get along, learn skills . . . both people skills and other necessary skills of life.  It is so amazing how it all fits together when we consider where our ancestors came from, why they did things the way they did, believed the way they did, and were the way they were.   Putting all that together then makes a bit more sense, and most the time, we can be proud of that.
So take pictures, label them with NAMES, write down some important facts that happened during their life that you found out.  Write down things that you have lived through and have done along with pictures.  It's all important . . . for those that come after you.  Do it now.

Remember, Keep singing, keep praying, keep smiling.


Blessings,
Gary