by Tyler Norman | Aug 27, 2014 | stories
I am an average teen. Pretty neat to know it was a big deal that my grandmother was a Rosie the Riveter. I didn’t know how important it was until an article came out in the paper about my grandmother. My grandmother, Dorothy Partain, seems so happy and honored. She’s also happy that she worked hard and did a really good job. When the article about my grandmother first came out, Ms. Hall my history teacher, put it up next to the Rosie poster [with the slogan], “We Can Do It” in our classroom. I spent 30 minutes figuring it out. Ms. Hall thought I was goofing around. I already knew people at home helped in the war. I didn’t know how big a deal it was. Now I see that all the people who are part of it and it’s not just about soldiers. World War II probably would have not have been won without women who are grandmothers now, even great grandmothers. Men didn’t think they could do it, but the women did just as good as the...
by Bill McKibben | Aug 27, 2014 | featured
My grandfather, Ernest McKibben, was a doctor in a small town in what was then the remote state of Washington. He was the only doctor in town, and there’s a picture of him somewhere surrounded by hundreds of people at a party in his honor. They’re all wearing t-shirts that say “I was a Dr. McKibben baby.” To me, he’s always been a potent reminder of the power of community. I grew up in suburbs, where there was less of that closeness and connection, and I always treasured the stories of the town where everyone knew everyone. I’ve been told that he sometimes “prescribed” sugar pills via an arrangement with the town’s pharmacist: he was so close to everyone in town that he knew when a placebo was the right treatment of choice. Needless to say, there are plenty of stories too about him treating people who paid what they could, and often not in cash. He finally retired as he neared his 90th birthday (his son, my uncle Ernest McKibben Jr. was already practicing in town), mostly because he could no longer drive well enough to make house calls, and they were a key part of his approach. In a world where we’ve decided that medicine, and most other things, can be dispensed virtually and anonymously, he reminds me of the kind of worlds we need to build (and rebuild). Bill McKibben is an author, environmentalist, and activist, co-founder of 350.org Photo of Dr. Ernest McKibben pictured with all the children he delivered in the shipbuilding town of Kirkland, Washington, courtesy of the author. Bill McKibben photo (c)...
by May Boeve | Aug 27, 2014 | stories
My grandmother, Verna Boeve, taught me to value work done in the home supporting a family and a community. She supported my dad and his eight siblings as a single mother, and before her husband died, by supporting their family’s work on a farm in Michigan. The work Grandma did every day involved cooking for her family and, on Sundays, for church functions. Up until the end of her life she was still baking pies and other delicious foods for me and my cousins when we came to visit. The work she did involved caring for me and my family and keeping our large family together throughout many changes. When she died three years ago, we all came back to Holland, Michigan, for her funeral. The whole family spent the following day working together, cleaning up the house she’d lived in for as long as I was alive. While cleaning out the basement, my cousin Kim found a journal Grandma had kept for dozens of years. I opened it and discovered that each journal entry was addressed in the form of a letter to me. She described what she thought, felt, questions she had, and hopes she had for my future. And she wrote a lot about work. On January 4, 1987, she wrote, “It blew, stormed all day but I stayed busy with the tapes and paid the school—Tried to knit a baby shawl…” On January 23, 1996, she wrote about the work of her parents: “They had an 80 acre farm. Dad was Highway Commissioner for many years and did threshing of grain for neighboring farms. Mother...
