As we celebrate the Fourth of July, I think of other years…of my childhood and with my daughter and grandchildren.  Although most of us in this multi-generational household have work schedules (four of us work at a supermarket), we still have time to engage in patriotic activities.

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There are fireworks in a neighboring town on Friday night.

A parade also is held there on Saturday morning.

We prepare special foods that have become a family tradition, including a barbeque. 

If the weather is good, we also may hold a yard sale this weekend.  Yard sales have become traditional over summer holiday weekends in our town.

I’ll see what photos and memories I can find from my childhood, my daughter’s and the grandchildren.  I should begin compiling them into a scrapbook/journal. 

When I was growning up, my mother’s family always gathered on July 4th.  In later years, as the older generation passed away, my parents established traditions at our home.  I shouldn’t let these family heritage memories disappear into the past.

What do you do to save Fourth of July memories?

July 4th memories often entertain the Alzheimer’s parent and help you preserve your family heritage…for yourself, your children and future generations.  Since Alzheimer’s patients like to reminisce, you may be able to do this with them about memories of this holiday.

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• Record the memories
• Jot them down
• Pull out pictures and have the patient tell you about them (if they’re able)
• Make some scrapbook pages with these memories
• Involve the whole family so they can have memories of doing this with  the Alzheimer’s family member
• Take the patient to July 4th events if they’re capable
• Prepare foods the family member did or enjoyed on these occasions in earlier years
• Join in any July 4th activities at the nursing home, if your family member resides there.

What do you do to remember the Fourth of July as you parent your parent?

Since my father was a farmer, he couldn’t take Father’s day off.  However, he enjoyed taking a picnic lunch, after the milking was done and we were home from church, and going for a Sunday drive with Mother and us  four children.  He had some of his favorite back roads to explore and often would stop where we children could run and play after we ate.

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 One of Father’s favorite picnic spots was found at the top of a cliff overlooking the Hudson River and the mid-Hudson bridge across the river from Poughkeepsie.  (We lived in a farming town 15 miles east of there.)  Father would relax in his lawn chair, enjoy his lunch, and watch the boats plying the river. 

 Mother took us children for a walk around the area.  There was a place for cars to park and trails to follow.  As the sun began dipping into the western sky, we knew it was time to pack up and drive home again.  There was always the evening milking to do, even though it was Father’s Day.  And Sunday was the hired man’s day off.

Do you have Father’s Day memories?  Are you making Father’s Day memories that you and your children will recall?

Why not make a scrapbook dedicated to Dad for Father’s Day?  You may not have it made for a gift today, but why not start one?  It can take many forms.

• For the dad of young children in the family.
• For grandfather…his life, achievements, and hobbies
• For uncles who play a special role in your children’s lives.
• For someone who has like a dad or grandfather in your family’s life.

What do you include?

• Photos of special events
• Photos, journal entries and memories
• Photos of an unfolding life
• Contributions from various family members

This can be a fun family project that recalls fond times and hard times and draws families closer together. 

I need to do one about my dad for family members, so children will remember him and his achievements.  I also must pull together photos and incidents from my husband’s life so our daughter and her children will know more about him.

Do you have any special projects surrounding the Dads in your life?

Creating family history quilts takes many forms.  These have become popular for preserving memories, pictures, fabric and memorabilia.

Reproducing family photos on fabric, generally with the computer and printer nowadays, although some people still like to make sun prints and similar applications.

Gathering fabrics used in clothing worn by family members, either from many or just one person.  Among these are t-shirts that appeal to a particular family member.

Using designs that connect with a person’s interest, hobby or occupation.  My daughter made a quilt for her young son with blocks of different trucks during his truck stage.

Tracing each family member’s hand and appliquing it to a quilt.  Each person might sign his/her hand.  My daughter did this for her family and added birth dates to the hands.

For a wall quilt, attach three dimensional objects associated with the person or family’s life.

What do you do for family memory quilts?

(Personal History image at Amazon)

“I still remember sitting with her in her apartment…quilting while she told me her entire life history. I wish I had the sense to have had a tape recorder, but alas, I did not,”Susan Lazear says, as she relates her experience in a blog entry about restoring her grandmother’s quilt.

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How many of us wish the same…that we’d recorded stories and memories of parents, grandparents and other relatives who are no longer here to tell us about our heritage?  Or we wish we’d at least jotted down some notes as they told stories.

These family stories are precious.  When we hear parents and grandparents telling them, we think we’ll always remember.  Or we may even get tired of hearing them, so tune the person out.

Then, years later, we wish we could recall the details.

It isn’t always convenient to record while someone is talking or it makes them uncomfortable.  At least jot down some notes and record the details.  Sometimes you can even get them to write down their memories, as I did with my dad and aunt.

My mom enjoyed my “interviewing” her as I did other people in my work as a newspaper reporter.  “Are you going to interview me now?” she asked, as we settled at the kitchen table with a cup of tea.

Keep a record of these memories, even when you think you’ll never forget the endless tales of family members. 

Also, record your own memories! 

 ”Mom, you spend so much time on family history but don’t write down your own memories for us,” my daughter commented.  So I’m starting to record mine, too.

I look at the old quilt I made with my grandmother more than 50 years ago and note some of the small repairs I must make so that the fabrics don’t deteriorate further.  For a quilt that’s well used, it’s in surprisingly good condition.  Those feed sack fabrics have endured the years well.

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When you restore family quilts, you’re restoring memories, too.  I recall sitting at Nanny’s side when I was about eight-years old, selecting fabrics, cutting them, and then hand stitching the blocks together.  While we worked in the farmhouse kitchen, Auntie bustled around with housework and cooking.  Ah! What delicious aromas came from her many dishes simmering or baking.

Do you have quilting memories?

Susan Lazear shares her memories of quilting with her grandmother in Repairing Family Heirlooms. She also shows photos of one of her grandmother’s quilts she and her mother have repaired.

Also, if you’re at a loss about repairing an heirloom quilt, Susan describes and shows in pictures how she and her mother did this one.  It may help give you some ideas and get you started.

When I posted a reading list, 13 Kids’ Mystery Books, Michelle mentioned, in her comment, that Nancy Drew was her favorite as a kid.  She wondered why I hadn’t included this series on my list.

Perhaps I should have added Nancy Drew as a bonus mystery.  This was one of my favorites as a teen, too.  It’s good to see Nancy is remembered and even a favorite.

My daughter enjoyed Nancy Drew and collected the books for a time.  I don’t have any of my original books (have no idea where they went), but I’ve acquired one older copy among my children’s book collection.

Nancy was revived and modernized several years ago, when they made a TV series of her adventures.  She and her friends encountered more modern day situations and mysteries.  However, she was still the same curious, independent, adventuresome sleuth that fascinated me as a teen.

Do you have Nancy Drew memories?  Do your children enjoy these mysteries, or like my granddaughter, prefer the fantasies of today?

Scrapbooking and relating family stories appeal to many Alzheimer’s patients.  Even though they can’t completely follow these activities, whether in their home or a nursing home, they do enjoy the times they are focused.

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I’ve taught scrapbooking and family history activities at a local nursing home and enjoyed this experience as much as the patients seemed to.

We made a scrapbook with a page for each resident who attended the sessions.  Using photos taken by the nursing home staff over a period of time, an activity coordinator and I arranged the pictures, chatted with the residents about them, and encouraged each patient to choose colors and embellishments.  Each did as much or as little as they could.

We kept the procedure very simple. using materials I compiled.  I also provided a family history questionnaire that we filled out with the patients as they finished the scrapbooking page.  They really enjoyed chatting about the memories these questions evoked.

The scrapbook we produced was kept at the nursing home, as something the residents could look at again and again.

Does anyone have similar experiences they would like to share?

(I do put together the supplies for these scrapbooking and family histories, along with instructions, so others, in their home or in nursing homes, can become involved in activities of their own.)

One of my favorite activities consists of researching and writing about my family stories, along with developing scrapbooks that depict these tales.  In fact, I’ve been developing this into a business that brands me as a family writer.

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You’ll find many ways to save your family memories in scrapbooks:

• Simply a collection of pictures with names or captions
• Adding journal notes and explanations to the pictures
• Writing stories and using the photos and pictures to illustrate
• Write a fiction story, or biography, illustrated with scrapbooking techniques, as I’ve been doing with the story of my Uncle William “Buffalo Bill” Mathewson of New York State and Kansas.
• Creating altered books with family stories and memorabilia
• Designing shadow boxes with family collectibles

I enjoy incorporating scrapbooking techniques with family history and being creative with my stories and illustrating.  I even teach classes on this to help others find the pleasure I do.

Where have you found some great resources for scrapbooking?