Memory Lane Mondays - Five In The Family...

Do you have memories of your family gathering around the dinner table when you were a child? Before we ate, we always said grace. It was nothing long, organized or flowery - just a simple expression of thanks for the warm food before us. My mum told us that when our family was young with our sole provider (my father) in college, we were sustained many evenings by venison or pot pies. To this day, she prefers not to eat either, while I still I love both.

I'm the eldest of six kids in our family. Until the younger the kids were born (a sister in 1965 to lead the next three), we were only "Five in the Family". My mum, dad, me, my sister and my brother.

This photo was taken on Thanksgiving Day, 1959. (Don't you just love those glasses my dad was wearing?) I would have been five years old (I'm the one - head down - to the left of my mum.); my little sister was four, and my brother would have been seven months old, having been born in April of 1959. I love that, even as a baby, Mum helped my little brother hold his tiny hands together for grace so that he could learn the concept of gratitude at an early age.
I remember reading this book as a kid. "Five in the Family". I thinking about the fact that we, too, were a family of five. The book was part of the Dick and Jane learning series written by Doroth Baruch and Elizabeth Montgomery.

I read the books over and over when I was little. I still have a copy of the book (copyrighted in 1954 - my birth year), and I think I'm going to sit down and read it all over again this week. I know it's going to be a wonderful read down Memory Lane.
Does this book hold memories for you, too? I have an extra copy that I'd like to share with one lucky Memory Lane Mondays participant. Once you've written your story, be sure to come back here and link to the party.

On Friday, I'll go to the Random Number Generator and select the name of one lucky participant to win their own copy of "Five In The Family". (Sorry, but this drawing is only for those who write their own Memory Lane Monday post and link back to here to the party before Friday.)
I'll be hosting this party the last Monday of every month in 2011. You're welcome to join the party and share your special memories, old or new. Be sure to come back and link to this post to participate.

You're also free to use my button for your sidebar or your posts. And, if you don't care to write, I hope you'll still visit me, as well as the other contributors, to read this weeks' and future stories. I can't wait to tell you my next one about our "jeep"!