Analo
With William down at the beach with his grandparents, we left for the mountains on Saturday morning to so spend time with family. Honestly, it was a research trip to gain information on that side of the family. I had the chance to speak with a distant relative of mine whose name was Analo. Analo was very impressive with the knowledge he had about family in his head. He grew up in a family with no electricity, hence no television, and they kept themselves entertained by story telling. He brought his album of photos in which he was very gracious to let us make copies. He also allowed himself to be recorded, and we have a strong recording of all his stories. I’m in the process of cleaning up the photos in which then I will add the audio on top of them for a DVD.
We had several real treats on this trip. The first was the fine lunch we had by my aunt. It was steak and gravy with rice, fresh corn and greenbeans, fresh home baked bread. We also had a fresh brew of sun green tea. The second treat was that after the story telling we were thrilled to hear several songs from Analo with my uncle playing the banjo. He said he had close to 200 old mountain songs in his head. Amazing.
That night we went to the county community center to hear Analo sing more old mountain songs. He was backed up by a bluegrass band. We left down an old and crookity mountain road. Jessica got a little car sick from all the twists and turns. We left late Sunday morning for our trip back home. We appreciate your prayers for us during this time away.
Now I need to come up with the same plan and speak with each of my aunts and uncles of times long ago to document our family for future generations. It doesn’t help to have the new Ken Burn’s movie, “The War” showing on PBS each night.
