We had a family reunion of about twenty-seven on Thanksgiving about five years ago. It was a festive occasion and after dessert had been served several of us were chatting over our coffee. Among the group around the table were five oldsters in their eighties and they began relating episodes concerning holidays and experiences in their younger days. It occurred to me that these narratives and anecdotes were rare and should be recorded. Consequently, I began keeping notes, collecting books and visiting with many interesting elderly people. I began to realize that they had such fun and shared joys and sorrows together as families and that we had lost many precious things in life with the event of automobiles, television, etc. We can't turn back the clock and wouldn't want to go back to hand cranking my¹ washing machine, keeping the stoves going, cleaning the lamp chimneys, turning the butter churn,..etc.

Yet, I feel in these days of great scientific achievement and materialistic ideologies we must take time to read and tell of our heritage to our young children and grandchildren. Many of the young people today don't even know common mother goose rhymes. They have a greater knowledge of science and are much more aware of world problems than we had at their ages. Somehow, though, at times, I feel they are too tense, too serious, and not as happy, laughing and light-hearted as children should be. We all need laughter and sometimes just plain nonsense in our lives and we must pass on a philosophy of love,² life; and happiness to the young.