Today is a BIG day in our family history! What? What!! Did I just hear my children yawn??? Well, guess what, I'm gunna tell this story anyway and someday you will thank me for it when you can tell your own children.
Who am I kidding? If I know you as well as I think I do you'll look it up on the Internet and hand them the iPad and tell them to read it instead. Hmmm, maybe that's not a bad idea...
Alright, in that case I'll just write directly to them!
Dear future grandkids, this is your Gran-Pappy speaking and I just want you to know that this is a Big day in your family history!
...What? Was that a yawn?? No? No, I couldn't believe that you would find this as boring as your parents did when They were young!!!
NNNEVER! ;)
O.K., enough of this A-typical-Irish-tangent...
~
On this day: November 11th 1859; our forefather Robert Gilmour stepped off of the ship "Empire State" onto the docks at Castle Garden in Manhattan N.Y.C. We assume he was met by his cousins the Glenn's (his mother's family) and began his life as a Cooper in a shop in lower Manhattan in the area known as "Five Points." Ever see that movie "The Gangs of New York"??? Yep; dem's are our people!!!
~
On this day: November 11th 1918; Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, became an annual United States holiday honoring military veterans. It is a federal holiday that is observed on November 11. It coincides with other holidays such as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.)
On this day we remember all our our forefathers who served and/ or fought and died for our country. Most importantly we remember James Gilmour the brother of Robert Gilmour who died in the Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines in 1862 during the Peninsula campaign. If you haven't seen or read his letter's or my transcriptions of them yet: Kick your parents in the A** for me in abstentia!!!!!!
~
Last but not least...
On this day: November 11th 1925; your forefather (Me Da) James Gilmour O'Brien was born in Brooklyn N.Y. and because it was Veterans Day he always had his Birthday off! This was pretty HUGE to me as you might expect 'cause without him there would be no me. No me; no you! :)
~
Every year I try to commemorate this day in some special way. This year I have written a poem for my Dad. I found this picture the other day and the truth is I never thought about him as a young man. We all are at one time, but thats not how I personally knew him: so although I realize he like I and perhaps you; was once young and handsome and maybe even "Cool!" I never imagined him that way. Until now:
Hey Dad, is that you?
I'm almost as old
as you were when you retired.
In this picture
you're as old as I was back then.
That was a different time
and Retirement
is a long way off
for me.
Were you really
this young?
This Cool?
Was I ever cool?
You must have been
lest I would not now
be walking
in your footsteps.
Soon
I will be
the age you were
when you died.
With luck
I'll enter those woods
Where your footprints
stopped
I'll continue
onward
tread those steps
you never walked.
With faith, I will
break new ground
look ahead
and not turn back.
~
Happy 86th Birthday Da! :')
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.
obeedúid~
Who am I kidding? If I know you as well as I think I do you'll look it up on the Internet and hand them the iPad and tell them to read it instead. Hmmm, maybe that's not a bad idea...
Alright, in that case I'll just write directly to them!
Dear future grandkids, this is your Gran-Pappy speaking and I just want you to know that this is a Big day in your family history!
...What? Was that a yawn?? No? No, I couldn't believe that you would find this as boring as your parents did when They were young!!!
NNNEVER! ;)
O.K., enough of this A-typical-Irish-tangent...
~
On this day: November 11th 1859; our forefather Robert Gilmour stepped off of the ship "Empire State" onto the docks at Castle Garden in Manhattan N.Y.C. We assume he was met by his cousins the Glenn's (his mother's family) and began his life as a Cooper in a shop in lower Manhattan in the area known as "Five Points." Ever see that movie "The Gangs of New York"??? Yep; dem's are our people!!!
~
On this day: November 11th 1918; Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, became an annual United States holiday honoring military veterans. It is a federal holiday that is observed on November 11. It coincides with other holidays such as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.)
On this day we remember all our our forefathers who served and/ or fought and died for our country. Most importantly we remember James Gilmour the brother of Robert Gilmour who died in the Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines in 1862 during the Peninsula campaign. If you haven't seen or read his letter's or my transcriptions of them yet: Kick your parents in the A** for me in abstentia!!!!!!
~
Last but not least...
On this day: November 11th 1925; your forefather (Me Da) James Gilmour O'Brien was born in Brooklyn N.Y. and because it was Veterans Day he always had his Birthday off! This was pretty HUGE to me as you might expect 'cause without him there would be no me. No me; no you! :)
~
Every year I try to commemorate this day in some special way. This year I have written a poem for my Dad. I found this picture the other day and the truth is I never thought about him as a young man. We all are at one time, but thats not how I personally knew him: so although I realize he like I and perhaps you; was once young and handsome and maybe even "Cool!" I never imagined him that way. Until now:
Hey Dad, is that you?
I'm almost as old
as you were when you retired.
you're as old as I was back then.
That was a different time
and Retirement
is a long way off
for me.
Were you really
this young?
This Cool?
Was I ever cool?
You must have been
lest I would not now
be walking
in your footsteps.
Soon
I will be
the age you were
when you died.
With luck
I'll enter those woods
Where your footprints
stopped
I'll continue
onward
tread those steps
you never walked.
With faith, I will
break new ground
look ahead
and not turn back.
~
Happy 86th Birthday Da! :')
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.
obeedúid~
