"Do not waffle about going to your class reunion; do it. "

August 3, 2005, The Class of ‘65, By TAD BARTIMUS, columnist....
http://tadbartimus.com/index.asp?rightnav=true&name=
No._283%2C_9-10-03&rid=268&lid=42&lname=Good+Stories+-+2003
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, so I couldn't attend my own class reunion, Class of 1964, Medina
High School, Medina, Ohio.... Instead, I was up in Michigan watching my
Grands graduate from high school, and eyeing property close by...on Lake
Huron...So, it occurred to me:

Why not attend two class reunions of kids that I attended elementary school
and junior high school with, but didn't graduate with because....
A: My Dad got transferred to another state...
B: The boundaries kept changing....
C: I don't know....bad karma instead of teen acne?

But for whatever reason I got to attend the Class Reunions at Flint Central
High School (Go Indians!) and Flint Northern High School (Go Vikings!) and
see familiar faces that I had not seen in forty years. It's always expensive
to attend something where travel and extended stay area burden in view of
today' s economy...

Rule 1: No new clothes, just wear the best you have....
Rule 2: Buy extra batteries for the digital camera!
Rule 3: Enjoy every moment! So what if you are older/fatter/grayer/broker
than the kids in your high school classes? They will be delighted to see you
and (trust me on this one) never remember what you wore unless you are
wearing your dress kilt, like my friend, Chris.

Very interesting and funny article by Tad (www.tadbartimus.com)
......It is amazing how much you grow and change (for the better) over
the years; certainly or hopefully, more kinder towards others after life
boots you in the butt a few times.....and we all grow up. Certainly after
losing someone we all become more sensitive.....

Everyone become royalty from my past, people who remember my parents, grandparents, the old neighborhood, the same teachers, and often the same
values. All the while we thought we were such rebels, so bright/hip/cool/ better
than the rest.....Sometimes we were, or we wanted to think we were, but often the
credit for whatever we have achieved must go to others: parents/family/
teachers/community leaders/neighbors. ....who believed that not only were
we capable of change, and so it occurred.

After all these years....come to find out it's the smile that belongs to our
old friends, that we crave, not the star shine of anyone's accomplishments
or acquisitions, including our own, or those of our children/grand children/or
best friends, in life.....

It turns out that a real honest hug (from those we knew best so long ago
and cared about).....means more than we could ever have understood, way
back when....These days I appreciate my past/friends much more than I
ever could have in 1964.....just being together with them once again,
knowing that life is uncertain and that friendships are still to be treasured,
just as our teachers told us....

Anyway, peace and grace to all,
McKai.


                 

    

From a letter to a friend.....regarding Project KINCAID.........

I did a search on folks named Kincaid....That is my maiden name....I am on facebook as Sharon Lee Kincaid-Wininger and I have been researching people who share my name...of all ilks/ages/from differing countries/races/politics/polity/interests/education/socials mores/cultures etc.

You can check out my facebook page. It has been interesting to see everyone and there is family documentation in my notes there, on some Kincaid history.

I have noticed that we turned out pretty well and that lots of generations are related. I am from the Va branch and descended through Rev Oscar Kincaid of Ky....

I am interested in who we are, what we look like, and since there are over 50 pages of Kincaids plus on facebook, and also on myspace, it has been interesting. Lots of young Kincaids are in college, or graduated from college. Many are veterans as well as college grads...

I know that some black Kincaid's are descendants from African slaves who were the ancestors to the slaves that my great grandfather set free (in Va.) and gave them land to farm and hid them. He was convicted by the teaching of the abolitionists and he was killed (by neighbors who disagreed with his feelings about these issues) for doing so....I am part Cherokee through his widow, who was left to raise 8 children. 

There have only been two Kincaids that are not interested in participating in this project: the rest are pretty proud of themselves, or their families and their accomplishments in life, and rightfully so. They all seem to be fairly good looking and rather interested in seeing one another (I am speaking on your behalf!). They are mildly interested in who they are and how they turned out. They left Scotland (not by choice) after the Battle of Colloden, and some came to the US and took up arms and fought the British in the revolutionary War; some Kincaids were sold into slavery, often times by neighboring tribes, some Kincaids were solds as bond servants for passage to the new world.

I wanted to show my children/grand children what folks named Kincaid looked like and where they went .....as they traveled from Scotland or Africa...This common name that we share marks a connection made by blood/circumstance/adoption/a moment in history ....where we became united in name....I am quite sure that most people who inhabit this earth, no matter what color they are are descended from slaves of some country...Most early cultures shared that ugly social blemish....

What is your families story? I'd love to know.....and anyone is welcome to add info to my facebook notes and pictures. Please look at the pictures and tell me what you think...

So far as I know only the Scottish Highland Clans (The McDonalds, etc) keep records of their members and usually it is something to do withmonies to be made from them, this is just to look at the faces in our famil and see what we look like and who we are descended from and what we have accomplished...as a family.....of whatever spelling....

Yes, we have a tartan, and you can see it and my pictures on both facebook and myspace or google it.

BTW: African history is amazing...if you have not seen Shaka Zulu you have missed a treat. Celtic history is also quite interesting and there are several good documentaries out especially the three part series called the Celts. As is Cherokee history .....and the Kincaids that married into other Aboriginal American Tribes of Native Peoples, who came over the land bridge from Russia from the Mongol tribes people.....

PBS has an excellant documentary called the Joureny of Man where they scientifically track man from Africa (Ethopia) as he settled the planet.....It's amazing.....

My family has wandered all over the planet from the US into Austrailia and New Zealand, the Phillipine Islands, to distant places...In the case of Ireland and England, the .....not so distant....And as you read the stories of the Kincaids you gain respect for their achievements in life and see the beautiful children which are the future heritage of all who share this name...

A few have been rich, a few have been famous, most have been patriots of some sort, many in the military......the rest worked hard to make do during bad times and good.....

Some have shared common diseases...and some of the Scottish Clans are doing DNA projects to help untangle some genetic information to help others live longer/better lives. In the case of black or white Kincaids this can help pick up on some common problems like high blood pressure and diabetes ahead of time...We are different from one another by one/one thousands of one million percent genetically....or some number close to that genetically..............

No matter who we are we are all God's children and beautiful in God's eyes....I'm proud to be a Kincaid, and proud of my family. Nice to hear from you, all! Thanks for writing and sharing your ideas....

Keep posting your pictures and stories. They are wonderful to read and see.....
Go back far enough and we all are.....long lost cousins......But today.....
Count me as a friend.

              ..........McKai ............
(nickname for ........S.L. Kincaid-Wininger)

http://www.facebook.com/Sharon Lee Kincaid Wininger
http://www.Irishabroad.com/mckai

Flying through Ireland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJo1JY_gAfU

Irish scenes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNxTqAITJD8
..

Old Genealogists never die, they just lose their census.

Most folks don’t really care if Uncle Osmer really did outwit three county cops driving through Roscoe Tate’s orchard on his John Deere. A few folks might be mildly interested if we found we were descended from one of Betsy Ross’ five daughters. (For those of you who gazed out the window through most of elementary history; Miss Ross is the thrice married upholster who possibly designed the first flag for the United States which netted her a small amount of cash, and her face imprinted upon a US stamp.)
Family history is usually only interesting to its members, the operative word is usually, but not always. Most families are too worried that their family coat of arms may
Be the kind that tie at the back so it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie but there are a few that figure, “Hey, if you have skeletons in that family closet…make them dance.”
Even if their Uncle Clayton is in Witness Protection and their Cousin Sissy married that guy who managed to pick everybody’s pocket at the last reunion, and even though they suspect that some of their relatives actually attend family reunions to find child brides….they may still have hopes that somewhere under a pile of tax records is documentation that proves that they are of the direct line of the Duchess of Llanwrtyd-Wells in Powys, Mid-Wales, so they can name drop at the next fire house corn bread and bean supper, and prove they are descended from the upper classes, as well as be part of a fund raising effort, mixing with the masses.
So when the time arrived when my children casually asked: “So Mum did we ever have anyone important in our family? Mrs. Larkin wants us to write about someone in our family for geography class: Where we came from, and all that.”
I scratched my head and called a few relatives and they gave me  a few bits and bobs of trivia for the kids: birth and death dates. No startling indiscretions were revealed. As my kids duly started to write down the begat’s and began’s; however my curiosity was peaked. After all, the hunt for genealogy passed as cheap entertainment in the seventies, beating out bad television shows. I assiduously gathered facts, spending hours every week in uncomfortable library chairs that caused your polyester pants or denim jeans to bunch up in the butt.
I gazed upon miles of Microfiche for new clues to puzzling questions. I was determined to find a link to Robert Frost, or perhaps some obscure grandmother that would be a cousin to Thomas Edison, or Clara Barton. Perhaps my family would inspire my children; as though their parents and grandparents were not enough when it came to being role models..
Around that time I began to notice that people in my family got a tad bit nervous if I began quizzing them about our family bits and bobs? Did they have concerns that I was soon to question the martial dates of grandparents, or dig out the low down on the truth about cousin William’s flag burning, in the sixties? Did they worry that I had found out  that their little Georgie never graduated from university because of something to do with his exams, or that Aunt Myra, who was working a discount dry cleaners, and if the newspapers were to be believed had recently been busted for possession of some regulated substance? After all, we had all seen Cocaine Madness and knew what loomed ahead for Myra.
Then a few years later a cousin mailed me a package that contained the records of our family back to the year eight hundred something in Scotland, so that was that! While we had our share of patriots, from a variety of wars and skirmishes, family dramas mostly centered around the circumstances of the times. On both sides of the blanket, we were mostly respectable and kept doggedly carrying on with life. All my questions were answered! Or were they?
I was mildly disappointed that we didn’t have any amusing courtroom drama like my friend, Louise: Her Mother’s sister, Louise’s Aunt Lily, was married to Uncle Tim.
He was famous in family annuals for his big Adams apple and extensive body art; everyone remembered his tattoo of a cockroach peeing into his belly button, in bright blues and reds, along with angels holding quotation cards with kitschy sayings like the ones in the store windows that advertised prices. But Uncle Tim was not known for his patience or his sense of humor. Still he was the love of Lily’s life.
During World War Two, when Uncle Tim  returned from Pearl Harbor, he was much changed from the farm boy who had signed up for the Navy, four years earlier.  He had left Lily still living with his widowed mother, at Uncle Tim’s mothers small bungalow. Maybe because they never had children, or maybe because his mother reminded Lily about the other three nice girls that Tim could have married, or maybe the stress of the war years caused Aunt Lily to snap.
One day she had hired men who were out of work to help her paint obscenities upon the house of one of her neighbors, whom she imagined was her husband’s mistress.
The neighbors hauled them into court and the local papers sent out their snappiest reporters to dig up the dirt.
Ultimately, Uncle Tim had Aunt Lily relegated to a nice place where she could do no harm and in time, Uncle Tim moved on to someone else’s family and Aunt Lily stayed in that safe place for all the years that Louise and I knew one another, through Elvis, in and out of folk music, and the Beatles, and finally into golden oldies and soft country..
I imagined Louise’s poor Aunt Lily playing cards until the end of her days accompanied by folks of similar circumstances. Was her hair still coiffed in a victory roll and net? Did she paint her lips dark red, perhaps wearing a lace blouse, with paper violets pinned to her collar? Did she still wear nylons that were attached by garters to a belt that
Lily wore under her long black lace slip? Lily smelled of Evening in Paris and she wore
The same ugly shoes that our teachers wore with thick soles and fat laces.   During those days we had advanced into wearing cologne called Charlie, and wearing panty hose and mini skirts. Our hair that was sprayed to perfection with toxic chemicals, and we listened to Mama Cass, and read our horoscopes.
Now, so many years later,  I’ve often wondered when the government cut out the state support for homes for those who were frail of mind was Lily forced to adapt to a new world of MTV and rap music? I’d ask Louise but she lost a battle with breast cancer ten years ago…  
Recently, my interest in my own family history was once again nurtured by the amount of information on the internet. So I decided to find out about the rest of my family, no matter what continent, they lived upon.
I joined Facebook.com. I put out the word that I was interested in everyone with my last name, no matter what their age, gender, circumstance, color, customs, or country of origin. Along with my children and grandchildren, I have created a virtual family reunion via the internet and I find everyone fascinating!
No matter their age, they seem generous in spirit, friendly and busy! I feel a wee bit like the good Lord, only in that as I look at my far flung relations across the planet and I marvel at their beauty and energy, and feel that I can see into the future.  I look at their faces and read about their lives and I know that somewhere, somehow, way back when, some time ago, we became related, in some way, for some purpose, and that’s good enough for me these days. We are dissimilar and yet we are related.
Their lives are interesting and just like your families and friends: Each of them are wonderful, different from one another, magnificent in their own way, just as each of you are, my friends! The joy of technology fused with grandeur of imagination and opportunity, a chance to be creative, to be one with each other, to observe the mystery of the human spirit! Grace and Peace, to all……..
  From Your Cousin,
       McKai
PS. Lately, I have observed that I dress and look a tad funny….Perhaps it is time for paper violets?

Check out this video: The Beauty Of The West - County Clare Summer 2006 By ElenB

..

Add to My Profile | More Videos


I was here...I loved County Clare, Ireland..But you may want to turn the sound down on this video, if it's not to your taste................

The lyrics are rowdy....good fun!!!!

Re: Baby Polar Bears: Don't ask...I just saw the cartoon and.........

Description: momma bear explaining life to baby bear...so funny/but not Disney

polar bears in the zoo