Day 871: Menzies Clan

We are reorienting our thinking toward the future as Quest is nearly put to bed for a few months.  One tent and one pack are still out, so we made calls and hopefully they will be returned tomorrow.  The thank you notes will be written after we return from our vacation and we will also set a date for the leader's picnic.

We're exploring the train options for excursions to the coast and lake country.  After a bit of research last night, I found out that the Menzies clan is Norman in origin.  Logical, really, although I never thought about being a product of the Norman invasion.  They settled in lands in the central highlands and eventually controlled a very large territory including Weem, Aberdeenshire and Lothian.

I hope one day to have time to do more thorough research on our family history.  Once the Quest book is done, that will be a new focus.  Although the boys know a few stories from the past, I don't think they have paid much attention to the family stories.  When we took them to the cemetery each Memorial Day, Grandma Betty always shared funny stories.  The most obvious was that her parents, Bertha and Warren, are buried several plots apart because they couldn't get along in life.  Mary has built on the very extensive research that Grandma Betty did for many years.  Betty's stories are also preserved in two books of poetry and essays.  They are real treasures.

Even my own siblings don't know many of the stories of our parents' history.  It's all in fragments and anecdotes.  At the reunion this summer, everyone was sharing stories and they all need to be written down and preserved.

For several years, I have tried to get Steve to write about his life experiences, especially Vietnam.  So much is lost to time unless it's written down.