These are some guineas that Rachel and I passed when we went to Turkey Run antiques just a bit back. They did not want to pause for a photograph and I was on a road where I felt like I had to hurry.
So I quickly snapped a few and these were my choice to publish.
I really cannot decide if I think they are ugly or beautiful. When I look at the smaller sized picture, I lean to ugly, but when I enlarge it, I think NO, not so ugly. Kind of beautiful in fact. I just love their feathers.When we were kids, we did not get to go places very much. Our mom's family all lived just a few miles away...I am sure less than 15, and probably less than 10. Yet we only went to visit about once a year. And when we were kids, a couple of our aunts and their kids maybe came to our house once a year.
One of those aunts always had guineas. I really do not know what the purpose of them were...I don't know if she ate the eggs or not. Do people even eat the eggs? I really do not know...but I do know that I wish I had paid more attention to them and wish I had asked more questions.
My brother, Neal just left, and we always talk about how we wish we had ask more questions. Our mom and dad just didn't talk about their childhood very much at all...they did not talk about what they did for fun, or what they did at holidays or anything. And I guess if truth be told, I don't talk to my girls about what I did as a child either.
One time, right before mom died I did think and ask her a question or two...She said they went to school from July till February. I don't think she said the reason for this. She walked about half a mile to school and came home for lunch. Her teacher taught about 30 kids from primer through 8th grade. They had visitors to the school every couple of Fridays just to see what the kids were doing...sometimes they had a spelling match (bee).
At the end of one year, the teacher held up mom's report card and said she wished everyone had a report card like it. Our mom only went through 8th grade; her teacher tried to get her to come to town and live with her and go to high school. But she loved her home so much she wouldn't leave it.
I ask her if they got a Christmas tree every year and she said no. I do not know if that was common to not have one or not in that area. She said her mom always baked a couple cakes and they would have apples and oranges and candy for their Christmas. That is one tradition she carried on...I can remember when I was a kid mom baking several cakes for Christmas. I really don't know if she did it every year, but I can remember the anticipation of it. So she must have did it more than once. And Mom and Dad always got a bushel of oranges and a bushel of apples for Christmas...
Mom did say that they would have a Christmas tree at school and sometimes there would be a present under it for each kid. She got one present that had two or three embroidery squares in it and that is how she learned to embroider.
I so wish I had started asking stuff sooner and just wish I had known what to ask. Now, Neal and I are always telling each other to remember to ask George this or that that we can't remember...not George, the Senior Hiker but George our brother. He can remember a lot more of the people from around home than we do. And can just remember some stuff better than we can.
I am always entranced when people start telling about their childhood, or their parents life. I think because I missed that part of mine. I guess I need to start talking about mine to my children.
