tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5862967268160188255.post2803445421594941609..comments2023-06-19T09:35:50.635-04:00Comments on At Least I Won't Die Young: Bob Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02101469531284368936noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5862967268160188255.post-83165698113624920142012-12-17T14:01:12.174-05:002012-12-17T14:01:12.174-05:00Well, I appreciate your advice to hang in there, a...Well, I appreciate your advice to hang in there, and since we are the same age, same to ya, old friend.<br /><br />I don't think I have ever told you this, but in 2000, Linda and I decided to go to Sweden as I had wanted to be north of the Arctic Circle on the summer solstice. In the process, we would see some relatives, as my grandmother, Wallie's mother, was an immigrant at age 18 and we had contact with some of those relatives. We mentioned it to my brother, and they ended up going, too, which was so good.<br /><br />We ended up seeing the church where she went as a youngster, the location of the farmstead where she grew up, and visited the graves of her parents and her brother.<br /><br />A few months later, we decided to go to the Grand Canyon. Three of the kids decided to go, too, which was good. However, we decided at that point that, wherever we decided to go, we would tell everyone that we were going to Wichita because NOBODY wants to go to Wichita.<br /><br />Back to the family history: my maternal great-grandmother was the one who lived to be 109, and three of her children, no spring chickens as you might imagine, wrote her history and published it for her family. That was in the late 1950's, and a couple of years ago, I re-typed it so we would have a digital version and put a whole bunch of footnotes in it to satisfy my own curiosity. It is a fascinating story, again, so much of it because I knew some of the people.<br /><br />I keep coming back, though, to the idea that your family who came here, irrespective of the details, and my family who came here, were made of the same stuff as a lot of American families. They were not the timid, they were the misfits and malcontents. The ones who had the chutzpah to get out.<br /><br />Linda's background is completely opposite--she and Matt know nothing of their families, despite the fact that family is the most important factor in a Korean's life. They did not come here by choice, and it is probable that their parents/grandparents were harshly treated by the Japanese. Until 1970, North Korea was more prosperous than South Korea, mainly because of the Japanese investment before 1945, so they came when that area was exceedingly poor and without even the beginnings of social programs.<br /><br />I am thankful for the stories, they give me some comfort. Keep wondering why some of them didn't turn up really, really rich, tho.Bob Petersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02101469531284368936noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5862967268160188255.post-42408207523583717792012-12-17T12:21:08.288-05:002012-12-17T12:21:08.288-05:00I wish I knew as much about my family history as y...I wish I knew as much about my family history as you do about yours. One of my father's sisters compiled a family history of sorts, but it is pretty sterile. There are no diaries.<br /><br />My mother's father was an orphan from a very early age and my mother says he would never talk much about his youth. Somehow or other I think we know that his parents were immigrants from Poland and that he was born in the Cleveland area. And I'm not even sure if that little bit is really true.<br /><br />Everything is relevant. If you dropped dead today, I would consider that you had died way too young, so hang in there.Gerald Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00533602646035026483noreply@blogger.com