Friday, January 18, 2008

Caught on Tape

As the last two January's have been, this is once again a chaotic time. I'm not always sure I'm going to get everything done that I need to. In fact, today...on my day off...I need to do some work. One of the things is for something I leading tomorrow morning, the other is my sermon - because of other things going on (including a fantastic concert experience in the evening) I'm not going to have time to work on it much tomorrow.

Even with all the busyness, it's still been a good month. Last year at this time a number of my folk were falling apart in different and serious ways. This year, not so much. Thank God.

But yesterday I received what may very well be the highlight of my month (it even tops the upcoming fantastic concert experience). My great-aunt sent me tapes that my family had sent to my great-grandma from 1979 until 1990. I've only gotten through 1983 so far, but it is fascinating and fun to hear us at those times/ages (including my parents - in the tapes they're just a tiny bit older than I am now).

By listening I have gained some insights - I talked fast even at a young age. I often yelled (in tune) as my singing. My parents really loved us (still do) - you could hear it in their voices as they talk to us, coaxing us to talk to "Grandma Dede" in the microphone. I guess I saw the news about President Reagan getting shot (and I think I said something about "I love him, I don't like him, but I love him" into the microphone at that....was I a Christian liberal even then??? Loving my neighbor, but not liking the president?). And, even then, I loved to make up stories (there was one about Santa Claus getting bitten by a fox).

As we're getting older it's getting to be more music performing than talking, but I do hope that those interactions continue.

1 comment:

~moe~ said...

How fun! what a great way to remember things from ago. I wish we would have done that in my family. I don't remember my dad's voice very well anymore and I would have loved to have had it on tape to hear when I needed to. Treasure these!