Leon’s Personal Reflections
When “Your” Stories Become “Our” Stories Through Love, Family, and Shared Hope
★★★★★
HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATIONS
(AND HOW THEY PREPARED ME FOR LIFE)
In my 70’s, I feel life has given me some perspective on what values and experiences have served me well. I am confident in who I am, grateful for how God created me, and positive about the future direction of my life. What surprises me, however, is from where some of this understanding and confidence comes.
My home growing up was in Norfolk, Virginia. During the 1950s and 1960s, we (my parents, my sister and brother, and I) spent our summer vacations at a cottage in Salisbury Beach, Massachusetts, with my mother’s family. This extended family consisted of my Granny, Grandpa, and a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins. My grandparents were Italian immigrants to America in the early 1900s. They worked hard, did well, and raised eight children. Granny and Grandpa never learned to speak English very well. They had little formal education, but they knew how to raise a family. This process influenced me years later.
The first thing I learned was that I was loved and loved by a lot of people. There were lots of hugs, kisses, affirmation, and encouragement during these vacations. There’s a lot of power in a genuine hug or compliment. Being around people who believe in you, it stays with you—perhaps for a lifetime.
The second thing I learned was that I was accountable to my family and not just myself—something bigger than me. I’ve never been drunk or used drugs, quite a feat growing up as a teenager in the late 1960’s. What would Granny say to me if I used drugs or did poorly in school? What would Aunt Rose or Aunt Anna think? Uncle Ernie? Cousin Ronnie? Because I knew they loved me (and I would see them in the summer), I felt accountable to them.
Third, these vacations shaped my values. Family loyalty,
commitment, hard work, a good education, and gratitude to be an American were stressed during these vacations and became internalized within me. Our heritage was also passed on in the form of stories, told again and again. I knew about their life in Italy, of Grandpa’s work in the mills during the Depression, when word came to them about Uncle Ernie being a P.O.W. in Nazi Germany, and many, many other stories told and retold by aunts and uncles. And in the retelling, these stories were transformed; no longer “their” stories or “your” stories, but “our” stories—a part of my life also, linking us all together as a family.
Lastly, these vacations were fun. The cottage was right on the beach, with a huge amusement park just about a half mile away. Whenever I smell pizza, cotton candy, salt air, I’m an eight, ten, twelve-year-old boy again mentally, back at Salisbury Beach—with them.
I wouldn’t trade a million dollars for these memories. My Grandpa died in 1969, my Granny in 1975. They are missed.
Thanks, Granny and Grandpa—you did a wonderful job. So did you, Mom and Dad, Aunt Rose, Aunt Palma, Aunt Anna, Aunt Dora, Uncle Al, Uncle Ernie, Uncle Bill, Uncle John, Uncle Joe, Aunt Rita, all the rest of my aunts, uncles, cousins. I love you—but, also important, I remember you and our stories.
Guess where I vacationed with my children? The beach, amusement parks, pizza nights, and passing our stories down to the next generation.
In all of life I also praise God, who, through his son, Jesus, and his holy, life-changing Book, has provided me with His greatest love and heritage, not only in this life, but also in the life to come. “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created” (James 1:18).
How do you spend summer vacations?
Your friend,
Leon Alderman, CDR, USN (Ret.)
Leon’s Lessons
Personal stories of faith, family, and service, offering hope through life’s challenges.
Leon Alderman, CDR, USN (Ret.)
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