I love hearing stories from the past. I especially like the little tidbits of family history that show how everyday living has changed.
After my milkweed post, I talked with a friend about how memories are lost if they are not shared. A small memory such as walking through vacant fields and gathering milkweed fluff for the "War cause" says a lot about the time in which it happened. One memory often leads to others, especially when there is discussion.
Shortly before my maternal grandmother died, I gave her a set of the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She had never read them before. 
She told me that she enjoyed reading them because they reminded her of her own mother and the way she did things.
Laura understood that things change over time. Little by little, the way we approach our everyday life does change. She wrote about the daily life of farming, building a home and family, and the routine tasks of providing food and shelter for a family. She shared much about the domestic life of her youth.
Today is the one year anniversary for my blog. In celebration of the event, I am hosting a giveaway. To enter, you must share a piece of your past. Share a memory of your own or one that was told to you, something that shows how things were different in the past. The winner will get a small bag of homegrown, fresh ground cornmeal from our Indian corn to use in making his/her own Little Red Hen bread. (That was my first post here.) You have until midnight October 28 to share your story in the comments of this post. I shall announce the winner on October 29.
