“Family Archaeologist” explores a century of family letters, diaries, and artifacts, and how they illuminate history and our shared humanity. To get an overview of the blog, click: “Welcome to Family Archaeologist”
LATEST BLOG POSTS
Joy in the time of Coronavirus—Jackie Wilson, Fred Astaire & Rita Hayworth
Hi wonderful followers. I'm a true believer that art in the time of disaster is the most soothing comfort of all. We see it popping up everywhere, Yo-Yo Ma playing Dvorak, Italian tenor, Maurizio Marchini serenading from his balcony in Florence, and more. Here's a link to what I think will get you snapping your fingers, jumping up to dance [...]
Martin Luther King: Are we there yet?
On Martin Luther King Day, let's celebrate his legacy by looking back at what he was fighting for and against. I make suggestions for a few books that helped me to gain a clearer perspective on the history of Black Americans.
Dad died 30 years ago today. A tribute
A tribute to my Dad, Fred, who died thirty years ago today.
Dad died 30 years ago today. A tribute.
30 years ago today, my Dad died. Please read this tribute to his life and death. If you didn't know him, you'll get a short overview - and lots of vintage photos. Note: if you received an unworkable link earlier, so sorry. The program got wonky!
Veterans Day evokes Thanksgiving Thoughts
On Veterans Day, I always think of my beautiful, young, handsome Uncle Frank Ebner, whom I never met in person, yet I feel I know intimately. Why? Because I have nearly 300 letters written to and from him from January 1943 to the end of September 1945. Then the letters stopped coming home.
Requiem for my Mom, who died twenty-five years ago today
Twenty-five years ago today, August 12, 1994, Mom was lying in a hospital bed in the room we call "the sunroom" in our home because it has eight windows, most facing east and a couple on the south and a window and glass door on the north side, which looks out onto my garden. I wanted Mom to be able [...]
Facing death. A letter home. Memorial Day & D-Day tribute
My uncle, Frank Ebner Gartz, known to the family simply as "Ebner," [ABE-ner] was a "prince of a guy," my dad said often. He was also a crack navigator on the B-17 Bomber during World War II. In one of Ebner's letters home, he speaks forthrightly of how he coped, facing death from the carpets of FLAK surging toward him over and over, as German fighter planes buzzed the B-17 to shoot it down. Then a tribute to the 75th anniversary of D-Day, which Ebner also wrote home about.
Mother’s Day and Mental Health Month
In May we're called upon to honor our mothers and to increase our awareness of mental health for ourselves, our families, and others. With this post I hope to do both: honor my mother for the anguished choices she alone, as an only child, could make about her mentally ill mother, and bring the choices she had to make at that time into focus in our own time.
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