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| GRANDMA AND THE FAMILY TREE:
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| There's been a change in Grandma; we've noticed her of late,
| She's always reading history or jotting down some date.
| She's tracking back the family; we'll all have pedigrees.
| Oh, Grandma's got a hobby; she's climbing Family Trees.
|
| Poor Grandpa does the cooking now, or so he states,
| That worst of all, he has to wash the cups and dinner plates.
| Grandma can't be bothered; she's busy as a bee
Compiling genealogy -- for the Family Tree.
|
| She has no time to baby-sit; the curtains are a fright,
| No buttons left on Granddad's shirt, the flowerbed's a sight.
| She's given up her club work, the serials on TV,
| The only thing she does nowadays is climb the Family Tree.
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| She goes down to the court house and studies ancient lore,
| We know more about our forebears than we ever knew before.
| The books are old and dusty; they make poor Grandma sneeze,
| A minor irritation when you're climbing Family Trees.
|
| The mail is all for Grandma, it comes from near and far,
| Last week she got the proof she needs to join the DAR.
| A worth while avocation, to that we all agree,
| A monumental project, to climb the Family Tree.
|
| Now some folks came from Scotland and some from Galway Bay,
| Some were French as pastry, some German, all the way.
| Some went on west to stake their claim, some stayed near by the
| sea.
| Grandma hopes to find them all as she climbs the Family Tree.
|
| She wanders through the graveyard in search of date or name,
| The rich, the poor, the in-between, all sleeping there the same.
| She pauses now and then to rest, fanned by a gentle breeze
| That blows above the Fathers of all our Family Trees.
|
| There were pioneers and patriots mixed in our kith and kin
| Who blazed the paths of wilderness and fought through thick and .
| thin,
| But none more staunch than Grandma, whose eyes light up with glee
| Each time she finds a missing branch for the Family Tree.
|
| Their skills were wide and varied, from carpenter to cook
| And one (Alas!) the record shows was hopelessly a crook.
| Blacksmith, weaver, farmer, judge, some tutored for a fee,
| Long lost in time, now all recorded on the Family Tree.
|
| To some it's just a hobby; to Grandma it's much more,
| She knows the joys and heartaches of those who went before.
| They loved, they lost, they laughed, and they wept, and now lay
| forever still,
| But they will not, be forgotten as long, as Grandma climbs the fami