A little bit of history

I started replying to the comments about the "Old Friends" son, and realized that I had more to say that what should fit in the comments section, so here's an entire post. I apologize if it's a bit boring - I love genealogy and am fascinated by my family's history, even though it is somewhat uneventful! I could go on for hours, but I'll try to keep this short!

I'm not usually one who listens to Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, but when I was looking for a song for my great-uncle's 90th birthday montage, I came across this, and it just fit!

The picture was taken at the farm where my grandma was born and raised just south of Chadron, Nebraska. It had been in the family over 100 years, since the Husak's came from Bohemia. Their daughter married a Summers from West Virginia, whose daughter married a Stewart from the Nebraska panhandle, whose daughter married a Southern from western Iowa, whose daughter married a Morris from southern Nebraska, who had me! My blog and etsy name actually came from this farm - I used the Summers name and combined it with "homestead", making Summerstead.

When I was younger, we would go up to Chadron twice a year for a week each time - once in the summer and once in the winter. Although I never lived there, that is the one place on earth that has always felt like home. It's one of those places that you walk into, and just feel loved. My husband has only been there once, for just a few hours, and he said the same thing (which is REALLY unusual for my hubby!) About 5 years ago, my great-uncle, Faye, woke up and was having trouble walking. In many ways that's not surprising - he was an 85-year-old man that had lived within 1 mile from that farm his entire life, and had worked that farm since he could walk! He was forced to go into an assisted living home, and when the cost of keeping up the farm started dipping into his savings, he decided he needed to sell the farm about a year ago. His sister-in-law's nephew bought it, and we know he'll take good care of it.

Faye has said several times over the last year that he wishes he had enlisted so he could have saved the farm. His older brother was in the Army fighting in WWII, so Faye was able to stay home and help my great-gramps with the farming. And, since he had the farm, he doesn't qualify for Medicare, so all he has to live on is his savings. I won't go into how rediculous and unfair I think this is, though!

Anyway...enough babbling...if you like old country songs and old pictures, and have about 9 minutes to look at pictures of people you don't know, you can check out the montage I put together for Faye's birthday last summer. (*You'll have to turn the volume up about 2 min 10 seconds in, then back down about 5 min 30 seconds in - the second song plays a lot softer than the first and last.)

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Forgive the poor video quality - it's much better on the actual DVD!