Is it worthwhile?

By

Gerry Niskern

“There’ll be blue birds over, the white cliffs of Dover,

Tomorrow, when the world is free.”

That’s the song that pops into my mind every time I hear someone complaining about wearing a mask during this terrible pandemic. I was a child during WWll and we sang that song a lot while we collected scrap metal and old tires to be converted  for the war effort. We saved our pennies and bought savings stamps to paste into a book to help us exchange  it later for a War Bond.

Our mothers saved their fat drippings in jars and turned them in to help make explosives for the war. Everything was rationed. Ration books were issued to each family to allow us to buy shoes, gasoline, meat, and sugar. There was absolutely no candy for kids to buy.

We stood in line  at the grocery every Saturday morning, waiting for our mothers to come later and take our place and be first at the meat counter. Meat came in once a week and if she was lucky she could get a roast and maybe some bacon.

Besides all the creature comforts and essentials we gave up, many gave up sons, brothers and fathers.

Very few of the 330 milllion Americans living through Covid-19 can remember the time when the country was asked to make sacrifices for the greater good of their fellow citizens. The people of the United States made those sacrifices willingly to preserve our freedom back then and they made a history to be proud of. The personal freedom that people refer to defiantly when refusing to wear a mask was won many years ago.  and now needs to be achieved by beating this Covid-19.

Sure, today we have been asked to put our lives on pause in a number of ways. We’ve been on this journey for ten months now. We have been asked to wear masks, social distance and avoid large gatherings. It’s not much to ask.

All of those things we give up are not leaving the planet! They will all be here next year. Birthdays, weddings, graduations, Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas parties will take place again.  Remind the people you hear complaining that we are in for the fight of our lives and we can make history again.

Maybe what we need this time is another song.

“There’ll be love and laughter, and peace ever after, tomorrow when the world is free”

“Visiting My Dishes”

By

Gerry Niskern

I had lunch at my bachelor son’s house the other and had a pleasant surprise when he served it on my dishes. Like all families we passed dishes on to the kids when they got their own place.

I started thinking about it, and really I started passing what I’ll call “Family Heirlooms” a long time ago. It was fun to see family members using them. Why wait until  I was gone? A long time ago I decided I wanted to know who would cherish and actually use treasured items of mine.

At a family birthday party last year it was a pleasure to watch my granddaughter serve the cake on my dessert plates, while the cake crowned my cake stand. The best thing about giving this granddaughter heirlooms is that she treasures old things and her daughter will learn to also.

The handmade quilt that I had as a child and actually had helped poke the needles up thru from under the quilting frame while my mother and her friends worked on it, will be in good hands. The story that goes with it will be passed along. The stories are valued as much as the items.

My other granddaughter lives in Alaska so it is a little harder to add to her household, but I did manage to carefully wrap and send an exquisite glass plate that my grandmother brought with her when she came to America in the l880’s. A difficult feat when you are traveling Steerage. I treasured it and I know she will too. It was her great great grandmothers!

A small unique Cedar chest is waiting at my great grandsons house for his daughter, with its sweet, scripted story inside.

Families have always passed down dishes, crystal, jewelry, furniture. It’s a wonderful tradition. And the best part is it doesn’t matter what your financial circumstances are, you always have the ability to give something you loved to someone younger and then sit back and watch them enjoy it.

When I was sixteen and visiting my Aunt Ann she insisted on giving me one of her ceramic serving bowls. At the time I really wasn’t interested in having it, but now it is one of my cherished possessions. When I see it I think of the good times we had in her house.

Start passing along some of your treasures. L promise it will bring you happiness

I haven’t posted a blog for a while. I couldn’t  really compete with the interesting and important writing taking place.

We had an election!

Many wise scribes wrote about the work that had to be done to reunite our country. Sure there are important issues for our new government to work on: building new alliances here and abroad.

But getting down to the nitty-gritty of what everyday citizens can do to build peace and harmony, it all starts at home. Sometimes we all don’t realize the smallest words or actions are repeated by our children and grandchildren.

Try this little exercise in communication to relax boundaries and bring everyone into the same fold, free from discrimination  and prejudice. When someone asks if you have a cleaning lady, say “yes, her name is (fill in the blank), instead of saying,

“yes, I have a Mexican/”

Instead of saying,”I’m going over to Home Depot to get a Mexican to do the yard, How about announcing, “I’m going over to hire a guy at Home Depot to help me?

It’s easy to drop the descriptive ethnic title and just call them “my friend”. Try it. And remember the young ones are listening and will imitate your actiions. Before you know it some of those new “friends” may actually become friends.

I’m sure, like me, you all have had many friends in your lifetime. They come in all ages, shapes, and sizes. A friend is a person you meet who likes you for what you are, not what you have done. Somehow, they see beneath your outside shell to the real you. And they like you anyway!

Let’s start building a community of friends who have no other descriptive title except “Friend”.