Grandparents' stories are usually seen as something rather tedious and to be avoided. Who wants to listen to old people´s boring tales of the war? Well, stop for a minute, because your grandparents' stories are actually worth listening to. Remember, they weren´t born old! Here are some amazing reasons to write down your grandparents' stories for posterity …
The first reason why you should find out about your grandparents´ lives is that it is part of your own history. Without them, you wouldn´t exist. Learning about your family history can be so fascinating – you find out where your ancestors came from, what they did, and maybe some intriguing facts about them!
Oral history is considered an important way of preserving information about the lives of ordinary people, and there are many projects working to collect such stories. Write down your grandparents' stories, and these can form part of archives which historians can use to research the past.
You might not think so, but grandparents can actually have some really interesting stories to tell. Because we obviously only get to meet them when they´re older, they become fixed in our mind as ´old´ people. But it´s my experience that there is nothing we can do that our grandparents haven´t already done!
Your grandparents' stories can bring the past alive. Sometimes, just a few generations can link us with events that took place over a hundred years ago. Grandparents can give us information about long-dead ancestors, and are invaluable if you want to research your family tree.
It´s a sad fact that our grandparents won´t be around forever, so take the opportunity to ask them to tell you stories of their lives, or write them down for you to keep. There are few things sadder than asking yourself a question and wondering if Grandma knew the answer. So don´t waste time; get started on recording your grandparents´ memories.
Talking to your grandparents about their lives and memories can help you see another side to them. Remember, they weren´t born aged 60! Ask them about their youth, and you may get some surprises – granny and grandpa may have had a pretty wild time long before you were born!
Listening to your grandparents' stories can give you a great opportunity to get close to them. Sometimes we lose the closeness that we had with them as children. You´ll really miss them when they´re gone, so take the chance to rekindle that close relationship – you won´t regret it.
Finally, our grandparents can tell us stories that are just plain hilarious. You might be surprised at some of the things they got up to, and what a sense of humour they have. Just because someone has grown older, doesn´t mean that they don´t enjoy a good laugh about things they remember!
Grandparents' stories are definitely worth preserving; some day, your own kids may ask about them. If you´ve taken the trouble to write down their memories, then you can tell your kids all about people that will otherwise be just names to them. Do you have any hilarious or fascinating grandparents' stories to relate?
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