"Music
makes pictures and often tells stories
All of it magic and all of it true
All of it magic and all of it true
And all of the pictures and all of the stories
All of the magic, the music is you"
~John Denver
Music has always been dear to me. My husband says we should all have a sound track to our lives. My daughter is a professional pianist, quite talented I might humbly add. We've always surrounded ourselves with music, diverse melodies to carry us through all the times of our lives. I heard one of my favorites on my run the other day and it brought happy tears to my eyes. It reminded me of my parents love story. Mom passed away last year just three days before my folks sixty-sixth wedding anniversary. How they found each other is another story.
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| My father's childhood home -- Courthouse and Jail Rock in the distance |
My dad grew up in a sod house along the Oregon Trail. In 1938 they lost the homestead to the dust bowl and auctioned off their belongings preparing to move to Oregon. Just days before my dad graduated from high school my grandfather was killed in a car accident while helping someone else auction off their things. My grandmother was hospitalized for some time. Dad wandered for a while and ended up in California building airplanes during WWII.
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| Mom graduated from the University of Nebraska |
Mom grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska and became a teacher. She taught high school typing and shorthand in a small town. There she fell in love with a farm boy who went off to fight. He was killed in Italy at the end of the war. She had resigned herself to life as an old maid school teacher.
Eventually, she was transferred to Bridgeport, Nebraska which happened to be my Dad's hometown. When a young man wanted to date her best friend she said she would only go if he found someone to go with my mom. It just so happened that Dad was in town to visit my grandmother for Christmas, so he was enlisted.
They went on that blind date and married six months later. The rest is, well, you know...
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| Lettie and Lester June 1946 |
Last June when I was visiting Dad he was reminiscing with me about the opportunities he had passed up and all those 'what ifs' that never really help. I played God Bless the Broken Road for him. He had never heard the song before, but he had lived it and he completely understood it.
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| Happily Ever After |
My brothers and I, our spouses, children and grandchildren are all grateful for that broken road that brought my folks together.
Linda<><
That is so neat! Some of my family was from Lincoln and Superior Nebraska:))
ReplyDeleteI was born in Lincoln and am a UNL grad like my mom. I love Lincoln:)
Deleteooooh this is so beautiful!! I think it is so important to hold onto those stories from the past. thank you so much for sharing a piece of your history :)
ReplyDeleteThat is beautiful. Everyone has a story to be told.
ReplyDeleteThank you! My dad loves telling family stories, but this is one we didn't hear until just recently.
DeleteWonderful~ Photos are a wonderful way to hold-on to our precious memories.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I agree about the photos. My dad says that though they were poor their family had two things most of the neighbors did not have. One was the camera, the other was a piano. If you look closely at the left side of the sod house picture you can see the crate the piano came in. They used it to store cow chips which they used for fuel:)
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