Personal Activities - Travel in 1961

Personal Activities - Travel in 1961

Summer time is often travel time for families, and has been 'forever' in many ways. Even most covered wagon travel was during the summer. Now, we are able to share our travels with family and friends on Facebook and other social media. What fun!

Recently, on Facebook, many have been sharing a U.S. map of the states, with the states they have visited colored in...usually purple, it seems. Some note how proud they are of how many states they've visited, others lament how many they have not visited.

In addition, our oldest daughter, Annette, and her husband, Larry, have been touring the Great Lakes region this summer, a six month tour. I've shared before some of our early travels to suggest she got the 'travel bug' early on - just a part of her life. 

Here is another one, with much to think about. This is dated 31 May 1961...I had just graduated from Iowa State University, and we were driving to California to start our new life there. Nancy and Annette at the Grand Canyon...bet you can't stand there, today! ;-)

Where are you going this year that you haven't visited before? Which new states will you visit? There is so much to see, do, and learn in each of our 50 states...don't let too many years go by before you have checked them all out, and widen the experiences available to you and your family! ;-)

Happy Travels!! ;-)

Personal Activities - Computers

Personal Activities - Computers

What was your first, at home, personal computer?

I’m a computer user, not a techie geek, so it is really hard for me to remember. My best recollection is that it was an Apple II with two floppy disk drives in about 1982.

Actually, I found a classic photo of my nephew, Evan, working on it... note the dot matrix printer...

Here is a good story from Wikipedia, Apple II Series article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_series

The first ‘computer’ in our house was actually in our home office for our business - it was a ‘dumb’ computer terminal that we used for inputing the bookkeeping information for our small business accounting service. The information we input on the terminal was then transmitted via phone lines to the mainframe computer in Illinois where the actual computing and printing occurred. The output was returned to us via postal service, as well. Oh my, so long ago…

I got to thinking about this last night when I found some old papers of very early internet genealogy connections a few years later. I'll share some of these in the coming weeks...

In the meantime, I should step away from the computer, and go for a walk...  ;-)

Happy Mother's Day to all Mothers

Happy Mother's Day 

to all Mothers

 A few of the Mothers in my life...

My wife, Nancy...

My three daughters, Allison, Annette, and Arrion...

My mother, Eileen...

Her mother, my grandmother, Dorothy...

Again, Happy Mother's Day to all Mothers, everywhere... Thank you all, for everything!!

Personal Activities - Reading

Personal Activities

Reading

I mentioned earlier that I do read a lot, in addition to doing some writing.

Actually, reading is my favorite way to gather information, both for knowledge and for entertainment. I do watch television. On occasion I do listen to music, but mostly, I prefer to read. I generally do not care for videos, I do not care for audios. I sometimes have the radio on in the car, but usually just some quiet music… Channel 69, Escape, on XM Radio, is my music of choice. I prefer no words when I drive.

Besides books, which I mentioned briefly before, I read several magazines a week (skim some, read some). I have my preferred readings available on my Mac, on my mini-iPad, and on my iPhone… mostly different on each, with a broad array of reading choices. I read sports reports on one, I read events of the day on another. I read more in-depth reports on another, for example.

I am rather picky about the books I read. I rarely read novels. I generally prefer historical non-fiction, especially biographies, it seems. Or time periods of history, or a series of events, often that include biographical perspectives of the famous and not-so-famous persons in the history of our country. I generally prefer Colonial to pre-Civil War books, but have read on all periods. You can see the books I’ve read at my Book Bazaar blog here:
http://drbillsbookbazaar.blogspot.com/

How do you choose your reading material? Do you read a lot, or very little? I’d like to hear your thoughts… if you have given it any thought. Perhaps you have, now that you’ve read this, and said, I think he is crazy…  ;-)

Use the Comments below, Facebook, Google+ or Twitter, to get us started. I’ll be back here, next Wednesday, with more of my thoughts. I await your comments…

Think Positive, Do Good! ;-)

Personal Activities - Genealogy 2

Personal Activities

Genealogy 2

Earlier I mentioned Photography as a hobby most of my adult life. For the past 20 plus years Genealogy, the study, recording, and sharing of family history would likely be considered my most active ‘hobby.’ I, along with my wife, were most active in our research and recording of our family history between 1995 and 2003…for me, at least. She has continued more active than I on her research since that time. Regardless, we have gathered an enormous amount of information on our families, ten to fifteen generations back on many lines. It has been a real joy, and continues to be a great satisfaction, when interesting issues come up that we can rely on that research to help provide answers to often vexing questions.

An interesting side-note to this is that when people begin to get interested in their own family history, the most often given suggestion may be… talk to the elders in your family first. We are now approaching the time when we are among the eldest living of our respective family lines. In my case, I have one uncle and aunt on my Mom’s side, and one aunt on my Dad’s side, of the prior generation still living. I try hard (not hard enough) to keep in touch with them, still asking questions about ‘the old days.’ After that, I am second oldest of my generation on my Mom’s side. I was also second oldest on my Dad’s side, but the oldest died far too young a number of years ago, leaving me as the oldest cousin. Just interesting to ponder.

I enjoy blogging, as you well know. My family history blog, begun in 2009, contains extensive writing on my family history, including my own history, as you well know, if you’ve been following along, at:
http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/

Our three daughters have been asking questions about our collective family history, now, for a number of years, which we appreciate. We love to share the knowledge we have accumulated. Our grandchildren have now, also, in their own spurts of curiosity, also begun to ask questions about the past, which is wonderful. What has been your experience? Are you asking those questions? Have you been answering the questions you are asked. I would love to hear your comments on your experience, or, even, questions about our experiences.

Use the Comments below, Facebook, Google+ or Twitter, to get us started. I’ll be back here, next Wednesday, with more of my thoughts. I await your comments…


Think Positive, Do Good! ;-)

Personal Activities - Genealogy 1

Personal Activities

Genealogy 1

Last week we talked about Photography… this week is Genealogy (the study of family history). Specifically, I’m going to share here, very briefly, about Genealogy Blogging, or GeneaBlogging. I began getting serious about genealogy in 1995, and began geneablogging in 2009. Even more specifically, let’s look at one blog post from 2012…

http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/2012/02/those-places-thursday-rbs-express-62-63.html

Earlier this week, I was contacted by the son of the second gentleman from the right (standing next to me - I’m the thicker body). He is just a few months older than my oldest daughter. When you hear from folks who are asking about a blog post, you never know what you are going to hear. More on that in a bit.

Sharing personal and family history information in a blog has many purposes, of course. One of them is to generate interest and comments from readers, of course. Another is as ‘cousin finder.’ It is a little scary, of course, publishing often fairly personal information about your own past or that of your family that you have found in research or talking to family members. I try to be as open and honest as I can be and simply not publish anything that would be embarrassing or dangerous in any way… at least, that is the hope. I have not yet had a really negative experience, and I have hundreds, actually thousands of web page and blog posts on line… going back to 1995… they are all still out there.

To read the ‘rest of the story,’ read here:
http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/2017/01/what-can-happen-when-you-share-history.html

Use the Comments below, Facebook, Google+ or Twitter, to get us started. I’ll be back here, next Wednesday, with more of my thoughts. I await your comments…

Think Positive, Do Good! ;-)

Personal Activities - Photography?

Personal Activities

Photography?

From 8th Grade, early in the 1950s, photography was my number one hobby. Photography has certainly gone through many transformations in the intervening 60+ years. Today, smartphones make everyone an amateur photographer… or at least they think so! But, photographing something of interest has also become, for most people, an ‘instant gratification’ activity. Another big change, through the years.

There are still few things I enjoy more than a good photographic image, with consideration of composition, lighting and subject matter. I’m pleased that each of our daughters has shown an interest in continuing that tradition. I captured a lot of images over the years… I do wish some of them had been more carefully done, though. But, capturing the moment has been one thing that has endured, over the years. Many of our best memories are supported by a photograph.

I wrote a bit about this here:
http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-book-of-me-written-by-you-prompt-21.html

Do you use photography to record your family history as you live it? I hope you do. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Use the Comments below, Facebook, Google+ or Twitter, to get us started. I’ll be back here, next Wednesday, with more of my thoughts. I await your comments…


Think Positive, Do Good! ;-)

Personal Activities - Where to start?

Personal Activities - Where to start?

 

My intent with the five daily themes for this blog was to have the opportunity to talk about virtually anything within the five… perhaps this is as close to ‘Other’ as any, do you suppose?

When attempting to describe my current personal activities I tend to reply: “reading and writing.” Since retiring, I’ve read over 120 books, written a half dozen or more, kept up a handful of blogs, read daily news online, and written, perhaps, over 200 short stories or articles online. So, why start an entirely new blog, now, and why call it a Lifestyle Blog?

I recent years, I’ve written mostly fiction. I’d tended to avoid essays. I’ve written about heritage travel and genealogy related material, I’ve rarely gotten very personal except with family history type stuff. With the new year, I’ve decided it would be useful to turn to a new page, and write about some of the stuff I have avoided in recent years. I’ve notice a number of celebrities, ‘reality tv’ folks, and others doing “life-style” blogs. Why not me? Well, for one, I’ll not be doing it to earn a living or to make money. My hope is to generate some conversations. Whether this happens or not will likely determine the life span of this blog. I’ve noticed it is very hard, these days, to have a conversation in any format, online or in person. Our attention spans are so short, our interests are so limited. Perhaps my hope is doomed from the start. Only time will tell.

Are you interested in having conversations? Personal activities are a good place to start. What are you doing that you’d like to talk about with someone. I’m here. I’ll listen, and respond. Use the Comments below, Facebook, Google+ or Twitter, to get us started. I’ll be back here, next Wednesday, with a topic of my choosing. I await your comments…

Think Positive, Do Good! ;-)