8:27 a.m. - 2008-07-04
US citizenship
Happy 4th of July!
I'm sitting here watching the news on TV, and up comes a report of the people who took the citizenship oath yesterday in Des Moines...that took me back....
Ben's grandmother came from Germany back in the 19teens...I remember her talking about a U-boat coming within several miles of the boat that the family bought passage on. Must have been scary for a teenage girl...
Anyway..somehow they made their way from Ellis Island, (where I have found their arrival papers) to Missouri, and somehow ended up in Iowa...I still wonder how...but, that story died with her.
She worked for the rich Pattee's here in Town, being what we would call the "nanny" now a days. They would take her to Lake Okoboji on family vacations, where she always told the story of swimming across the lake (in a heavy german accent) I've been to that Lake, and it's MASSIVE! (Its a wonder that my husband and son's are alive today!) She met, and married Ben's grandfather,John, who was born in Jamaica, Iowa...when she was in her late 20's. The moved to Florida where my Father in law was born (Funny story there too...Mary's husband John was a carpenter. He worked outside in the blazing Florida sun, where he developed a very dark tan. When my Father in law was born, and the nurses filled out the birth certificate, they asked Mary where her husband's birth was, and she told them Jamaica...Not mentioning Iowa, one look at him, they assumed the Jamaican Islands, and my Father in law was assumed to be Black. That's how he was listed on his birth Certificate.)
They came back to Iowa...10 years later gave birth to their second son Richard. Mary studied for years and finally went to Omaha, Nebraska and took her Citizenship exam. I don't know the exact date that she became a US citizen, but, I remember her telling me, it was one of the proudest days of her life.
So, sitting here, watching TV this fine July 4th...takes me back, remembering grandma....
Hugs
Candy
