GRANDMA'S DISEASE Author Unknown THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE IN GRANDMA, WE'VE NOTICED HER OF LATE. SHE IS ALWAYS READING HISTORY OR JOTTING DOWN SOME DATE. SHE'S TRACKING BACK THE FAMILY, WE'LL ALL HAVE PEDIGREES. OH, GRANDMA'S GOT A HOBBY - SHE'S CLIMBING THE FAMILY TREE. POOR GRANDPA DOES THE COOKING, AND NOW, OR SO HE STATES, THAT WORST OF ALL, HE HAS TO WASH THE CUPS AND DINNER PLATES. GRANDMA CAN'T BE BOTHERED, SHE IS BUSY AS A BEE, COMPILING GENEALOGY FOR THE FAMILY TREE. SHE HAS NO TIME TO BABYSIT, THE CURTAINS ARE A FRIGHT, NO BUTTONS LEFT ON GRANDPA'S SHIRT, THE FLOWER BED'S A SIGHT. SHE'S GIVEN UP HER CLUB WORK AND THE SOAPS ON TV, THE ONLY THING SHE DOES NOWDAYS IS CLIMB THE FAMILY TREE. SHE GOES TO THE COURTHOUSE AND STUDIES ANCIENT LORE, WE KNOW MORE ABOUT OUR FOREBEARS THAN WE EVER KNEW BEFORE. THE BOOKS ARE OLD AND DUSTY, THEY MAKE POOR GRANDMA SNEEZE, A MINOR IRRITATION WHEN YOU ARE CLIMBING THE FAMILY TREE. THE MAIL IS ALL FOR GRANDMA, IT COMES FROM NEAR AND FAR, LAST WEEK SHE GOT THE PROOF SHE NEEDS TO JOIN THE D.A.R. A MONUMENTAL PROJECT ALL DO AGREE, ALL FROM CLIMBING THE FAMILY TREE. NOW SOME FOLKS COME FROM SCOTLAND, SOME FROM THE GALWAY BAY, SOME WERE FRENCH AS PASTRY, SOME GERMAN ALL THE WAY. SOME WENT WEST TO STAKE THEIR CLAIMS, SOME STAYED THERE BY THE SEA. GRANDMA HOPES TO FIND THEM ALL, AS SHE CLIMBS THE FAMILY TREE. SHE WANDERS THROUGH THE GRAVEYARD IN SEARCH OF DATE AND NAME, THE RICH, THE POOR, THE IN-BETWEEN, ALL SLEEPING THERE THE SAME. SHE PAUSES NOW AND THEN TO REST, FANNED BY A GENTLE BREEZE, THAT BLOWS ABOVE THE FATHERS OF ALL OUR FAMILY TREES. THERE ARE PIONEERS AND PATRIOTS, MIXED IN OUR KITH AND KIN, WE BLAZED THE PATHS OF WILDERNESS AND FOUGHT THROUGH THICK AND THIN. BUT NONE MORE STAUNCH THAN GRANDMA, WHO EYES LIGHT UP WITH GLEE, EACH TIME SHE FINDS A MISSING BRANCH FOR THE FAMILY TREE. THEIR SKILLS WERE WIDE AND VARIED, FROM CARPENTER TO COOK, AND ONE, ALAS, THE RECORDS SHOW, WAS HOPELESSLY A CROOK. BLACKSMITH, WEAVER, FARMER, JUDGE - SOME TUTORED FOR A FEE. ONCE LOST IN TIME, NOW ALL RECORDED IN THE FAMILY TREE. TO SOME IT'S JUST A HOBBY, TO GRANDMA IT'S MUCH MORE, SHE LEARNS THE JOYS AND HEARTACHES OF THOSE THAT WENT BEFORE. THEY LOVED, THEY LOST, THEY LAUGHED, THEY WEPT - AND NOW, FOR YOU AND ME, THEY LIVE AGAIN IN SPIRIT, AROUND THE FAMILY TREE. AT LAST SHE'S NEARLY FINISHED AND WE ARE EACH EXPOSED, LIFE WILL BE THE SAME AGAIN, THIS WE ALL SUPPOSED. GRANDMA WILL COOK AND SEW, SERVE COOKIES WITH OUR TEA. WE'LL ALL BE FAT, JUST AS BEFORE THE WRETCHED FAMILY TREE. SAD TO RELATE, THE PREACHER CALLED AND VISITED FOR A SPELL. WE TALKED ABOUT THE GOSPEL, AND OTHER THINGS AS WELL. THE HEATHEN FOLK, THE POOR AND THEN - TWAS FATE, IT HAD TO BE, SOMEHOW THE CONVERSATION TURNED TO GRANDMA AND THE FAMILY TREE. HE NEVER KNEW HIS GRANDPA, HIS MOTHER'S NAME WAS ..........CLARK? HE AND GRANDMA TALKED AND TALKED, OUTSIDE IT GREW DARK. WE'D HOPED OUR FEARS WERE GROUNDLESS, BUT JUST LIKE SOME DISEASE, GRANDMA'S BECOME AN ADDICT - SHE'S HOOKED ON FAMILY TREES. OUR SOULS ARE FILLED WITH SORROW, OUR HEARTS SAD WITH DISMAY. OUR EARS COULD SCARCE BELIEVE THE WORDS WE HEARD OUR GRANDMA SAY, "ITS SURE A LUCKY THING THAT YOU HAVE COME TO ME, I KNOW EXACTLY HOW IT'S DONE, I'LL CLIMB YOUR FAMILY TREE."
		ONLY GENEALOGISTS CAN APPRECIATE!!!! My family coat of arms ties at the back...is that normal? My family tree is a few branches short! All help appreciated My ancestors must be in the witness protection program! Shake your family tree and watch the nuts fall. My hobby is genealogy, I raise dust bunnies as pets. How can one ancestor cause so much TROUBLE!! I looked into my family tree and found out I was a sap. I'm not stuck, I'm ancestrally challenged. I'm searaching for myself; Have you seen me yet? If only people would come with pull-down menus and on-line help. Isn's genealogy fun? The answer to one problem, leads to two more. It's 1999...do you now where your Great-G..Grandparents are? A family reunion is an effective form of birth control. A family tree can wither if nobody tends its roots. A new cousin a day keeps the bordem away. After 30 days, unclaimed ancestors will be adopted. Am I the only person up my tree...sure seems like it!!! Any family tree produces some lemons, some nuts and a few bad apples. Ever find an ancestor HANGING from the family tree? FLOOR: the place for storing your priceless genealogy records. Gene-Allergy: It's a contagious disease, but I love it. Genealogists are time unravelers. Genealogy is like playing hide and seek: They hide..I seek. Genealogy: Tracing yourself back to better people. "Crazy" is a relative term in my family. A pack rat is hard to live with, but makes a fine ancestor. I want to find all of them! So far I only have a few thousand. I should have asked them BEFORE they died! I think my ancestors had several "Bad Heir" days. I'm always late. My ancestors arrived on the June Flower. Only a genealogist regards a step backwards, as progress. Share your knowledge, it is a way to achieve immortality. Heredity: Everyone belives in it until their children act like fools! It's an unusual family that hath neither a lady of the evening nor a thief. Many a family tree needs pruning. Shh!! Be very, very quiet...I'm hunting forebears. Snobs talk as if they had begotten their own ancestors! That's strange: half my ancestors are WOMEN. I'm not sick, I've just got fading genes. Genealogists live in the past lane. Cousins marrying cousins: Very tangled roots! Cousins marrying cousins: a non-branching family tree. Alright! Everybody out of the gene pool. Always willing to share my ignorance... Documentation...The hardest part of genealogy. Genealogy: Chasing your own tail. Genealogy...will I ever find time to mow the lawn again? That's the problem with the gene pool, NO LIFEGUARDS. I researched my family tree...and apparently I don't exist! So Many Ancestors.....So Little Time!!
							Back to the links site
	Dutch Cradle-Song (Dutch) Tikke-takke-tonen 't varkentje in de bonen 't paardje in de haver 't koetje in de klaver 't schaapje in het groene gras 't eendje in de waterplas 't visje in het netje en 't kindje - wip in 't bedje ('t = a dutch simplification for the neutral article 'het') (English) Tikke-takke-tonen (no meaning, just for rhiming) the little pig in the beans the little horse in the oats the little cow in the clover the little ducks in the pond the little fish in the little net and the baby - hop into the little bed