Some Perspective

 Saw this today on my Facebook feed.  A Sonoma County friend copied it from one of her friends, and I shared it back in 2020.  It is very appropriate still.  I was born during WW II, my mother just before WWI, and her mother in 1894. So very much has changed, and so many have died.

I'm not the originator of this. But I'm passing it along because I think it's important.

For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900. When you are 14, World War I starts and ends on your 18th birthday, with 22 million people killed. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20. Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million. When you're 29, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy. When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet. When you're 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war, and the Holocaust kills six million. At 50, the Korean War starts, and five million perish. At 55, the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years. Four million people die in that conflict. Approaching your 62nd birthday, you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening. As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that? A kid in 1985 didn’t think their 85-year-old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great-grandparents) survived through everything listed above. Perspective is an amazing art. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through all of this.

Thanks to my friend Vespa and her friend Randy for passing this along.

7/16/2024 update. There have been almost 40 years of wars, pandemics, etc. since 1985. Someone could update this if they had the time.

Gerry's Genealogy hiatus is over, I hope.

 I was quite involved with my Soroptimist club the last three  years, and of course, we were faced with the Covid-19 Pandemic, so I didn't do much writing.  I'm still working with Soroptimist, but I don't have quite the pressure that I did as Treasurer.

Covid-19 is still around and keeps mutating with some variants being quite dangerous, especially for immunocompromised individuals.  The Vaccines and Boosters are doing a good job for those that have gotten them (that's us).  

Covid took my cousin Betty Ann Davis Heston in November of 2021. 

We will see if I keep writing posts about the family.

Remembering My Grandfather, Jasper Patterson

Updated this post on May 7, 2023.     I actually rewrote and added quite a lot.

My Grandfather, Jasper Patterson, was born on this day (12 March) in 1872, 152 years ago. He was born in San Marcos, Hays County, Texas, USA.  

His parents lived in Missouri for the 1870 Federal Census.  Although not Slave owners, they were apparently Southern sympathizers and moved to Texas for less hassle.  My Dad told me something about the family hiding out in the hills during the Civil War. He wasn't too specific or sure of the details.  Jasper's Dad, Greenup Bird Patterson, could read and write and was a well-to-do farmer based on the value listed in the 1860 & 1870 censuses. Real Property, $3,000, and Personal Property, $1,000, were listed in the latter. 

In 1894 Katie Tadlock marries Jasper.

Jasper and Katie Tadlock Patterson, probably taken in 1894 for their wedding photo.

In the 1900 census, Jasper is a Farmer living next door to his parents and probably working their farm. He and Katie have two children, Greenup Bird II (named after his grandfather) b 1895 and Maggie, b 1897.  According to his obituary, the family moved to Greer County, Oklahoma Territory, in 1901.  "Shortly after that, he had a blacksmith shop in Granite."    

In the 1910 census, he is listed as a Blacksmith with his own business.  They now have five children, Green, Maggie, Florence, b 1900; Melvin, b 1904; and William C, known to me as Uncle Carter, b 1905.   Uncle Kenneth was born in December 1910, the first of the Patterson children to be born in the new State of Oklahoma.

Katie gave birth to Jasper Junior in early March 1913. Eight days later, Katie Dies.  According to a transcription of her Death Certificate, she died of Cancer.  However, my dad said Jasper hated the Doctor because he wasn't careful enough, and she died of Childbed fever.  Sad to say, Junior died on March 29, 1913.

Jasper apparently married Frances (unknown maiden name) Patterson shortly after Katie died. Jasper needed a wife to care for his five children. I haven't found any record of the marriage, though. However, she died in November 1914, and he never married again. 

In the 1920 Census, Jasper is apparently sharing a home with his son Greenup and his wife, their son (I list him as Greenup III since Jasper's Dad was Greenup), as well as Jasper's three youngest sons, ages 15, 14, and 9 Yrs.  

Jasper was living with his sister, Maggie, and her family in the 1930 census. He is still a blacksmith, working in an Iron Foundry.  In 1932, Melvin wrote a letter to Uncle G.B.'s family and gave them this information about his dad.  "Papa is at Uncle Jeff's in Texas. Uncle Jeff died a few days after he got there. He is going to spend the winter there as Uncle Jeff's wife asked him to."  He is still there in the 1940 census with no occupation listed but is probably helping out on the ranch.

His son, John Kenneth Patterson, took care of him somewhat in his old age.  By the time I got to meet him in 1949, he was in a care home in Altus, OK.  Fairly close to where Uncle Kenneth and his family were living in the Granite area.  He apparently had some type of dementia because he didn't remember my dad.  Here are some snapshots from our meeting.  Well, the blogger system doesn't like my photos for insertion.  I'll have to add them to a Facebook post.  Finally got them added in May 2023.

Back Row: Ora Mae Taylor, Jo Ann, Kenneth, Jasper, Melvin Patterson; and Florence Patterson Pendergraft.  Front Row: cousins Carol and Geraldine (Gerry) Patterson

Melvin, Jasper, and Kenneth, aka Pete, Patterson

Jasper died on 29 August 1953.  I remember my dad getting the phone call.  It was the first time I ever saw him cry.

This took me a lot longer to create than I thought.  So, I'm now a day late in posting this.