I have always wished I could have known what the lives of my grandparents were like when they were little, young adults, my age, etc.... You see, all four of my grandparents died before I was born. There were no diaries or journals left behind recording everyday happenings, things which may have seemed insignificant to them but would mean the world to me. There are few photos recording what their homes looked like, how they were furnished or what exciting new conveniences became available during their lifetimes. I don't know how my grandmothers felt about their washing machines or how my grandfathers felt about their first cars. They all saw massive changes in society and technology prior to 1961. But the richness of their everyday lives is lost to time.
My paternal grandparents were born in Pennsylvania in the late 19th century. My maternal grandparents were born in Slovakia under the rule of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire just after the turn of the 20th century. All were gone by 1961, so I never was able to sit and listen to their stories or ask questions about what life was like for them.
My paternal grandparents were a part of the massive social changes at the turn of the 20th century. They witnessed the first world war. My grandmother died shortly after the end of the war of tuberculosis in 1923. My paternal grandfather lived on to witness the prosperity of the post war '20s and the economic crash of 1929 committing suicide in December of that year having lost everything. My father was an orphan at age 9 along with 11 other siblings of which he was the youngest.
My maternal grandparents left their homes for a better life in America during the great immigrations at the beginning of the 20th century coming through Ellis Island to the country where the roads were said to be paved with gold. My grandfather came first as a bachelor to establish himself and send for his fiancee, my grandmother's elder sister. By the time he was able to send for her, the romance of the idea of beginning a new life in America had worn off and she refused to come. As my great-grandparents had promised him a wife, they sent their younger daughter, my grandmother, to an unknown life with a man she barely knew far from home. They married and established a life for themselves. They too witnessed the first world war, experienced the prosperity of the '20s, sent four sons off to fight in the second world war and welcomed them all home again, raised a daughter and lived to become grandparents to my uncles' children. My grandfather bore witness to the massive changes the unions brought about to working conditions in the steel mills and died in 1958 of cancer caused by decades of hard labor in the mill. My grandmother followed him two years later also dying of cancer without ever seeing her homeland or parents again.
My grandparents were ordinary people living ordinary lives in extraordinary times. They lived full lives. The same as we do today. I hope to make sure the richness of my family's everday life is not lost to time by creating this blog to record the ordinary, the mundane and to us what may seem insignificant but could be a treasure trove to future generations. I'm choosing to start this adventure on the eve of my birthday as a gift to myself and my family.
