I don’t have any amazing talents to hand down to my children and grandchildren. That’s okay. I still have passions that I just love to share. How about you?

From one generation to the next, it used to be a given that the mama would teach her daughter to cook and sew. The daddy would teach his sons to plow, fix the car or hit a baseball. Our modern lives are so busy that the sharing of the things we love sometimes just doesn’t happen. Luckily there is old age. That’s when more of us have more time to share those things we just adore doing!

I got to spend time with my grannies in Oklahoma and my favorite thing was spending time in their gardens. When my own grandkids came along, I loved dragging them out in the yard to plant a seed, weed or just pick tomatoes or okra. I am lucky. So far, all of them love to spend time in the garden. I’m looking forward to the years when I won’t have to work so much so I can spend more time with all of them.

Leaving a Legacy

What did a loved one teach you or share with you that you’ve passed along?

Last month, my daughter brought my two grandsons over to help me in the yard. Springtime in the Sacramento Valley means grass — lots and lots of tall, tall grass. I have two acres and I’m just now getting a handle on keeping it all mowed. It was fun watching my younger grandson work alongside me and his mother. He’d never used a weed-eater. No need for gas-powered weed-eaters in town where he lives. I thought he would hate it but he loved it! Tate worked tirelessly and seemed to enjoy every minute. I had to literally drag his mama outside when she was his age. She’d do anything to get out of yard work. She’d VOLUNTEER to clean the whole house if I’d just not make her go in the yard. That was then. Now she enjoys yard work.

After a while working outside, my knees began to hurt, so I took my older grandson into the kitchen to make some breakfast. Punk is 16 and he adores my homemade biscuits and sausage gravy. He asked if he could help. I jumped on that. He was great frying the sausage and bacon. He did a perfect job. Then I started the gravy.

“That’s how you make it?” he asked. “Just a little flour with the bacon drippings?”

“Get the flour good and brown,” I told him. “Add your salt and pepper and then add your milk — slowly.”

I have no doubt that he can now make gravy as good as I can. It made him so happy. It reminded me of my time spent in my own grannies kitchens where I learned to make bread dough and candy sweet potatoes. I just wonder how many times my grannies, great-grannies and great-great grannies taught one of their kids to make sausage gravy.

Sewing Up Memories

One thing my daughter did like to do that I also enjoy is sewing. She’d watch me make a quilt and pretty soon she wanted to start one. I learned to sew from my mama who is an amazing seamstress. It was fun teaching Tara to sew and now my granddaughters are catching the sewing bug. So for Christmas one year, I bought my two daughter-in-laws a sewing machine and Tara one too. Last year I bought one for my oldest granddaughter. Now if we can just find some time to have a lesson or two.

You never know which kid will like doing what activity. Give each of them a chance. I had no idea that Tate would like gardening or Punk would love cooking. I never imagined that Lilly Belle would like to sew or that Emily would love to raise chickens. I’m proud of my grandkids and proud of their parents who have encouraged their kids to follow the things that interest them.

So who are you going to pick on next? What special project will you start to share with one of your kids or grandkids? What great talent does your older loved one have that should definitely be shared with the next generation?