Those Places Thursday Waynesburg, PA

 A Trip of a Lifetime

 A trip of a lifetime it so far, has become. I was planning five year spaces in between visits.
 Now I would have to come for six months to make up the difference and so many great cousins
  have gone across the divide.

 It was a whirlwind 2+ weeks and shared amongst genealogists, newly met friends, and found distant
 cousins.

 Some of these people I had talked to for years on the phone, corresponded by mail with and started doing computer talk with.

 Mildred Russell,  and her two sisters were most gracious and interesting. I only met Kate in real life.
 Mildred and I talked for hours some times about family.  She died before I could arrive at her home.

 Eva Patterson, Jacob Huffman and Kate, married to Ray Santee, were fun to share stories with and time.
We wandered through photographs and memory lane, several different days.    A great side story came
 from one of our evening visits.

 I had to make a choice talk to the living information access or dig in more terrific books in their Library.
 It was not even a choice. Ruth you and your husband were an absolutely joy to share time with. I see you sharing and caring at the Library. I am sorry that Howard is not with us any more.

 Between the hospitality of cousin Helen Durbin and Eva Patterson I was able to stay long enough to really get to understand their ways of life and how the past had been.

 The funny thing was, they kept saying I must have been there before because my language and manners
  matched theirs.  My Grandfather spoke the same way as did my Mom.  Some things I guess are a bit
 ingrained.  We laughed at how 100 years did not break the chain.  Grandad had been brought here
 when he was five with his father Franklin Hoffman. His father was Sanford.

 We shared cocoa and cookies and banana bread, home made of course, until 4:30 a m one morning.

  We swapped many stories that ran along the same veins even if not in the same state.

  My were they amazed I knew what  bread and milk dessert was. Mom did not let us children put coffee in it but I still have a cup at night once in a long while.

 The foods were the same and most recipes were constant. Pretty amazing I think that the family kept a grasp on their lineage enough to not alter recipes and change stories to make more glamourous or less.

 Another side bar was a cousin in San Diego came into the library on one of those days there and
we did not even know of each other before then.

Vicki Porter Adams, Thanks for all the encouraging words to go see this country and meet kin. You were a true friend and an awesome cousin. I  miss our late night adventures.

 I got to meet LLoyd Roupe and many other relatives that were related to me. I can not say enough for the genealogist that helped me to gain access to the great documents and data that I as able to retrieve.

That is also another story.  Will share more names and places and faces soon.