Legacies

Every Christian parent wants their children to come to a saving knowledge of faith in Jesus. No thing is more important.
That is not exactly something one can give as a wedding present however. I begin planning wedding presents fairly soon after I find I'm carrying. I want to give something of value, something generational as a new generation steps out together. I've been blessed by our family doing that w/ us & in every likelihood I will pass those same physical gifts on w/ one or two new ones.
I'd mainly like to pass on an ethic of hard work & a collectively fading knowledge of how to do for oneself. This isn't something that was really taught in my immediate family, my great grandmother had the greatest store of such knowledge & wasn't pushing to get it learned. She passed at 91 the week after Charlotte was born & all of her know how w/ her. I wish I'd gotten her to teach me to sew or have her grab my hand & say "You're going to learn how to sew." but that wasn't her way. I might be drafting patterns by now if it had. She canned & gardened everything but never w/ any help that I know of.
The tough practical every day skills that were commonplace are lost & have been replaced by the supermarket. I can't say what I want to say w/out plaigerizing, so here's a post from a 17 year old girl w/ her head on straight.
The Yellow Rose of Texas
American Woman;
Weakened by Power


I have a good friend. This friend asked me to come over and help her butcher a troublesome rooster. She had never butchered anything or watched an animal be butchered. She is very squeamish about these things, and was unable to watch some portions of the butchering. She helped me when I needed an extra hand, but seemed a bit distressed about the whole affair.


I was pondering all this awhile later and decided I was angry. Not at my friend, no, I like her very much. I had decided I was angry at the society for stealing from women. For while the feminist movement portrayed women as a fragile creature and called for us to gain the courage to stand up, be strong, and do things that we couldn't before, all it did was weaken us. Now we can sit at Congress and be governors and maybe even be President, but we can no longer butcher a chicken. We cannot gut a pig because we think that is gross. We cannot ( or will not ) clean a chicken house or muck out a horse stall. We can't make cheese or bread or candles, weave fullcloth, braid baskets, grow gardens or even educate our children. We rely on a faulty system to feed our families and shape our children's minds while we are away running companies, fighting wars and leading countries.


But if you ask us, our chests swell with pride and we say we are free, strong, and powerful. But it is still not enough. Say, why can't we play football? We have fooled ourselves into thinking the feminist movement has done so much for us, made us strong and independent. In all truth, it has made us slaves. We have sold and lost all that was admirable about the classic American June Cleaver. We disdainfully think of how our mothers and grandmothers slaved away and they couldn't even vote! What these women don't realize is that the very things they despise about the pioneer woman were her virtues. And, really, if any early nineteenth century woman saw us today, she would have to laugh at how very soft and helpless we are.


So why are we surprised when we find out the food we feed our children contains so many body destroying substances such as corn syrup, MSG, aspartame, aluminum, and so many others? Could we expect much more?


Of course it should make sense when we look at the current teenage generation and a shudder runs down or spine. What will happen to us when these kids run everything? If the pregnant, drinking, smoking, foul mouthed, depressed, brain dead young woman we see every time we go to Walmart had had the womanly influence she needed that her mother could have provided, maybe she would be a very different, happier person. If her mother had not just raised her and actually trained her, maybe things would be a bit different. Maybe. We should not be startled when a small child asks us where milk comes from or if eggs come from trees. It's not cute, it is disturbing. Women are largely responsible for our new generation of confused youth.


If we talk to our grandmothers they may tell us of a time when we knew exactly what went into our children's minds and mouths because we were there, raising them in the honor and admonition of the Lord. We fed them from the wholesome bounties of our home grown gardens. We taught our daughters and passed on skills and wisdom. We raised our sons to be men. We loved our husbands and worked to make our houses homes. We fought a more important war on the home front. We fought a war in our children's minds, in our youth's hearts. We barred the way of Satan's inevitable tries to corrupt our children, the next generation. We were strong, and we did our God-given duties. What could be more admirable?


But we nervously laugh and say we are glad that age is over.
" Just think of doing all that work from dawn till dusk. All that slaving and sweating? And for what?"


Titus 2: 4 & 5 " That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children; To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the Word of God be not blasphemed."


We should do it because it is our duty. We should do it for the Honor and Glory of the Lord.
A worthy cause to say the very least.

Blessings to you and yours.

Tracy Bunker

I can't say I had the same mind set at her age but what must she know already that she can pass on to her as yet unborn children?

Anyways this post was supposed to be about heirlooms though it's turning into a knotty ball of oddments. Mike & I are learning as many skills as we can to pass onto our children as common skills that uncommon times ahead may call for. Our electric cooperative puts out a magazine every month that warns of steeper electric prices, aging infrastructure, scarcity of resources, choking senate bills, warnings of scheduled blackouts in the years to come plus local stories, recipes & a swap shop. It's good bathroom material.

But w/ those thoughts in mind I can know that the gifts we have might be the more practical & hopefully appreciated kind. Mike wil give tools of his collection but I don't know who gets what. These are from me.

Gift #1 Happy Black History Month!




I'm a little late, though I started this post in Feb. My great-grandfather got this at the school sale of the Washington Elementary school when it was desegregated back in the 1950's. It's a bit big for a school room clock, I don't know if it was in the hall or what. The school has since been turned into an apartment building. He gave it to grandpa, who gave it to dad, who gave it to me, who'll give it to Victor probably, or the first married child. But I don't think he'll want ....

Gift #2 My Receipt Box (as in recipes)



I got this box about 6 years ago & 4 or 5 packs of recipe cards. I've got 1 pack left. I'm trying to not only add recipes (There is a disparity between my breads & desserts vs. meats. I'm working on that.) for food, but laundry soap, herbal concoctions, canning things, cleaning solutions, just household things. Whatever gets written on a card is in my nicest handwriting & filed accordingly. Old headings have been crossed out & new ones written in; I don't do "light" or "microwave".



Recipes on other cards are also put in, that front bit sticking out is a whole crockpot recipe booklet.

Gift #3 The Family China

A typical expression for her in regards to pictures.

You can't see the pattern, but her cheerios are in the china. That's our birthday thing. The china is incomplete & missing some pieces but it is still pretty, gold & cream on white. It is perhaps not quite as useful as a clock or box of know-how, but it doesn't run on batteries.