For Throwback thursday: four generations of my family (my dad’s mom’s side) in one photo! This was taken back in ’91 (which means I was 8 and my brother was 7), right after we’d moved up to Rochester, MN from Raleigh, NC. My dad’s parents brought my grandma’s parents up to visit us in our new house (which we didn’t live in very long – we moved from Rochester to Winona a year later).
I’ve always felt closest to my dad’s parents. They’re lifelong human rights activists – they were involved as teachers during Freedom Summer, my grandpa is a minister who briefly worked with Martin Luther King, Jr., they lived in China for 2 years (they were there during the events at Tiananmen Square) when I was really little, they were a big part of the movement to abolish the death penalty down in New Mexico recently, etc etc. They’re just such good people. I admire and respect them so much.
You can tell I got my grandma’s coloring, ha!
The Harrison side is where I get my athleticism (and, as my husband puts it, my inability to ever sit still and just do nothing). My dad’s parents are both very athletic, active people – we actually went to watch my grandpa compete in the Senior Olympics this past summer! My grandma’s a swimmer, and would’ve competed too, but she had to have gallbladder surgery. My dad ran marathons with me, back in the day, and now he does cross-country ski. That’s just how we roll in my family.
My dad’s mom’s parents lived down in Florida. I remember great-grandpa helping me pick oranges (or were they grapefruits? Memory is such a blurry thing) from the trees behind their house. They passed away when I was in middle school. I always thought my great grandma would live forever, she was just that sort of “made of steel” lady. Alas, no.
300 days left to go in 2014!
whit::knits 