Wednesday, September 22, 2010

My Legacy

I haven't been too interested in my roots; I have a hard time remembering my childhood.  I think this mostly comes from my mother.  We were a military family and moved OFTEN during my childhood.  My mother was very efficient and only moved those things that we would need or use often.  So there are no "tangible" items to provoke memories of those early days.

I envy those people that have life-long friends; those people (other than family) who know them so well; who went to school with them from the very beginning. I don't have any of those (although I did just make contact with some high school friends from 40+ years ago from our high school in Taiwan - but that's another story).

But there's always been a "legend" in our family.  That's our Aunt Laura Crews. Technically she's my Great Great Aunt, but everyone knew her as Aunt Laura. Aunt Laura - our own, true pioneer woman.  In her early 20's she was determined to homestead land in Oklahoma when they opened the Cherokee Strip for settlers.  There was a race on September 16, 1893, when over 100,000 people prepared themselves to find a new home.  In those days it would have been proper for a woman to ride in a buggy or ride side-saddle on a horse.  Aunt Laura knew that wouldn't cut it so she made herself a pair of cullote pants and rode astride her horse.  She was one of the masses, that rode in a cloud of dust and homesteaded property.  Oil was later discovered on that property and after the initial hard years she lived a healthy, wealthy life until she died at the age of 105 (she was the last surviving pioneer who had staked a claim).  Although she never married and never had children, she did raise her brother's six children when he and his wife died.  My grandmother was one of those children.

Here's an old (circa early-1940's) and precious picture of my Aunt Laura:


Last weekend my sister Nancy, her husband Randy and I went to Enid, Oklahoma to "enjoy" our Aunt Laura.  Enid was commemorating the running of the Cherokee Strip and we just wanted to be there.  Little did we know that we would have such a wonderful and surprising time!  Two days there and almost every moment filled with awesome experiences.

This weekend has inspired me to consider my roots, to examine my heritage and learn more about this amazing woman and our family.  There are several stories to tell about this weekend, but I'll save those for separate blog entries.  This entry is to briefly introduce you to my Aunt Laura.  Aunt Laura, our matriarch; the person who didn't just think about doing something but DID it.  I'm finally interested and ready to learn the lessons she can still teach me.