I have a family history book written by my grandpa who talks about the life of my ancestors, going back to my great-great grandparents.  My wife and I recently read through it again, looking for a possible name for our baby (due in late October).

I don’t know what it is about the old days, but it always seems like it would have been a better life.  Was it really, or is it just always romanticized?  Our family were mostly farmers from Northern Michigan, early settlers to small towns trying to make it from nothing. 

I learned that my great-great grandpa David Shrauger was the first postmaster of Centerville, MI.  He also hauled grain to barges on the Erie Canal, subject to the danger of hi-jacking.  Apparently, he had the reputation of being an extremely strong man: “Whatever an ox could lift, he could.”

It’s like the old John Henry song.  And I’m sure I’ll pass down the legend to my kids and grandkids, just like the song.

I found this old guitar at the farmhouse where my grandma and her brothers and sisters grew up, a Sears Roebuck mail-away, circa 1930?  I don’t know whos it was, or anything else, but I’m guessing it was my great-uncle Eddie’s or Frank’s.  In my head, he was the great undiscovered American talent, like a bluegrass/folk version of Mississippi John Hurt.

Taj Mahal did a song called St. Kitts Woman where he talks about his grandma and the power of the spirit of ancestors, how they still live in your own soul.  I’ll post a clip after dinner. 

And know I feel that spirit, deep down in my soul, make me think back to my ancestors, who lived a long time ago…  listen