Monday, June 15, 2009

"That's The Way It Was"


Do you have any fond childhood memories? Perhaps you took several fun vacations with your family, or remember holiday get togethers. One of my fondest childhood memories is the family reunions we would have every couple of summers. My family had roots spread all throughout Louisiana and Texas. We would pick a spot for our reunion and get together for some family fun. I think my great grandmother, Bess Carroll Brendel, started this tradition. I loved her dearly. She died when I was young ( I remember being devastated), but there are some things about her I will never forget. She loved to write and paint. She painted beautiful pictures in her studio, some of my mom and uncle that are hanging in my mother's house. Nonna B (as I called her) also wrote a book that was published and is in the Library of Congress. The book is called "That's The Way It Was" by Bess Carroll Brendel. In this book, she writes about her childhood on a plantation called 'Old Chesterfield' and I am even mentioned in it, as her sweet young baby great granddaughter. Perhaps I inherited her writing genes- she always did tell me I was very creative. Well, whatever it is that I inherited, I do know one thing. I am proud of my family heritage and I hope to write more about it in the upcoming future.

2 comments:

Jeni said...

That is such a beautiful thing to acknowledge and share with us you great Aunt Bess's piece of work. I can't wait to look it up. My dad had a lot of things like that too. Pamphlets for minsitries and screenplays and marketing news..... It is definetely inherited. Nice to know huh? We had fun memories of driving to Illinois from Texas with our dad & all the stops we made along the way.. alot of camping & civil war site visits :). Thanks Laurie for bringing me back. I have tears. i've been missing my dad alot lately.

Holli said...

Wow-- how cool!