Matrilineal Monday - My Grandma's

Today I have been thinking a lot of my Grandmother's and their Mother's....I spent the day in the kitchen canning 17 jars of chicken for our food storage.  Well what does canning have to do with your Grandmother's you ask?!?!  Good question :)  I keep wondering if my Grandmother's canned at all.  It may seem like a silly thing to you but it goes back to what I have been talking about in some of my older posts about putting ourselves in the same footsteps as our ancestors.

I know that my Grandma Wavel Adamson canned, as I can remember eating her canned pears and peaches.  Did she learn about canning from her Mother, Bertie Pattee? I think I will call my Dad tomorrow and ask that very question.

In today's world, some women would be offended at the thought of spending their day in the kitchen with an older family member.  Why that is positively medieval...right? To do such a domestic chore as canning and spending the day learning such a chore from someone so much older. Young people sometimes find spending time with the older members of their families a dull and dreary day.  How sad that way of thinking makes me.  I quite look forward to the times I have teaching my own daughter and someday hopefully my granddaughters (WAY...way in the future) the things I have learned and spending time talking together.

I am currently teaching myself how to can.  I have resources such as books, internet and the occasional advice from friends.  And while I find this new education very satisfying.  How much more special it would have been to have a Grandmother around to teach me. 

I know that my Grandma Adamson canned...but what about my Grandma Timbrel, Helen (Burrows) Timbrel.  And if so did she learn from her mother Elma... Chances are that they probably did do a little canning but to what extent? As I work around the kitchen I always wonder these things.  Oh to be older and have more memories.  I wish I could have learned at the knees of these beautiful ladies.  So please if you have these types of memories treasure them and think of them often, they live on inside you. :) And if your of the older generations, share your knowledge (even if it's not in the kitchen) with the younger generations...no matter how much they resist...someday they will treasure those memories.

So thankful I still have the chance to make memories with my own Mother...last fall she helped me when I was learning how to make freezer jam.  And she is always up for learning when it comes to canning.  I think she spent most of her time with her Grandma Elma at the sewing machine. When she was very young, she would make all her own clothing. They did a lot of sewing together.  What precious memories she has of those times.

Now go make memories either with your grandchildren or with your grandmother...depending on where you are in your life... :) And treasure each and every moment...because life is beautiful and so very short.

The only picture I have of both my Grandmother's together Wavel G. Adamson, Helen M. Timbrel