An Attitude of Gratitude Journal - Childhood and Memories

Continuing along with the month long Attitude of Gratitude Journal challenge, here are Days 13 and 18:

Days 13 and 18 are similar. Childhood and Memories. Both ask which memories are you most thankful for. Day 18, Memories asks what your earliest memory is. Mine is visiting the 1964/1965 New York Worlds Fair in Flushing Meadow Park. I was either 3 or 4 years old then.

 The technique challenge for Day 13 is to use a tag. A few months ago I came across this photo of me, my brother John and my Grandmother at Rockaway Beach. It was the first day of autumn in 1970 and the weather was forecasted to be in the 90s. My mother said it would be too beautiful a day to be in school and that the only place to be was at the beach. Rockaway was a short drive from our home in Howard Beach. My mom took the photo. My brother Pete is missing. I can't recall if he was in the water or if he decided he wanted to go to school anyway. I printed the photo onto cardstock, cut it into a tag shape, colored loose leaf reinforcements and put over a punched hole. Added some fabric yarn.

 

The technique challenge for Day 18 is to use packaging in a creative way. I cut strips of a used tyvek envelope which I had colored with various paints, adhered these to the page and wrote on them.

The background was created using some new art supplies: Derwent Inktense color blocks and Niji water brushes. I had fun with these and will be using them OFTEN in all my mixed media work!

The Importance of Memories?

Since I am spending time with Grandma, I am remembering once again the stories she told me over and over about her life growing up. Once again I am thinking that I should write them down so that they will be preserved. The same thing with the photos I have that were hers, Uncle Mickey's and Mom's. I think I should put them into albums and write notes about who the people in the photos are. I intend to one day take a pictorial inventory of the things I have inherited and put these in an album with labels explaining the stories behind them.

But now I am wondering if I did this, would it matter to my children or to my nieces and nephews? Will they want to know these stories? Will they want to know about these people?

I was in an antique store yesterday and saw boxes of old photos for 25 cents each. Old photos of family members that no one remembers. This is where they wind up.

So I wonder who the preserving of memories is for? Even the photo albums my mother spent the last year and a half of her life creating, are being stored in boxes in my brother's garage!
Should I do it for the future generations or for myself? What about the stories of my own childhood spent with my brothers, cousins and friends? Are we the only ones who care to hear them?

I don't know. I do know that my life is full of thoughts and activities pertaining to the present and to the future. I don't want to take the time right now to organize the past.

These are my thoughts at the moment. We'll see how and when they will change.

I appreciate any thoughts you may have with regard to this post.

Susan