Wednesday, December 1, 2010

There's One in Every Family II: Home, sweet home!

Jasia needs more submissions for the 100th Carnival of Genealogy and another "One in Every Family" came to mind. There are more exceptions to this choice than the last, and at this time of year many churches, synagogues, schools, and fraternal organizations raise money and collect items for those families without. However, most families have a home.

I've shared photographs of several homes on this blog in the past.  Below is my great grandmother, Margaret (Denyer) Van Every in front of, I believe, the family home in Fabens, Texas (outside of El Paso). I'm fairly certain the year was between 1920-1923.


Below is my great uncle, Mandel Newmark, outside of his 'home' while serving during World War II.

However, I know from the war diary he kept he didn't consider that home.  Home was where he hoped to return, but never did.  Below is Mandel's mother, Bertha (Cruvant) Newmark, looking out the window of what I assume is the family home.  However, since I don't know the year, I don't know the address.


Several authors have attempted to define 'Home.'

"Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in." -- Robert Frost wrote in "Death of a Hired Man"

Tess Slesinger wrote, "Home is where you hang your hat, and drop your skirt, my dear." (The Unpossessed, 1937) The proverbial "Home is where you hang your hat," may well date back further, but this is the earliest usage I have been able to find in an internet search.

Edgar Guest wrote:
It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home,
A heap o' sun an' shadder, an' ye sometimes have t' roam
Afore ye really 'preciate the things ye lef' behind,
An' hunger fer 'em somehow, with 'em allus on yer mind.
and John Howard Payne, in the opera "Clari, the Maid of Milan" (1823), wrote
MID PLEASURES and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble there's no place like home
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,
Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
Home! home! sweet, sweet home!
There 's no place like home!

2 comments:

Jasia said...

Another great idea, John! Thanks so much for this second post and for all you do to support and promote the COG. You rock!

J.M. said...

Home it where the heart is. I firmly believe that. Lovely post!