Everybody Has Their Moments
My great grandmother kept a pistol under her carriage blanket when going to market. A great-aunt was a wild flapper girl. A grandfather by marriage lost an eye, supposedly from being kicked by a mule, but in reality he lost his eye because his still exploded.
Many mothers and grandmothers took on male roles and work during the war. Our ancestors were suffragists, pioneers, slaves, share croppers and slave owners, camp victims and survivors, business owners, hippies, feminists, soldiers and pacifists. They were strong men and women. Because they were, we are.
Do you know your family history? Have the stories that have been told time after time around the holiday table been written down? What family stories were NOT told and will go to the grave with the elders?
As families gather and the wine flows, encourage the story telling. Take notes if you like. Pull out the family albums from way back when there was film to develop and prints. Laugh over the fading Polaroids that captured the hair, all the hair of the day.
I would bet there is a lot of wild in your family tree. Where do you think the crazy came from?