Traditions

We have a new member of the family, my younger brother's third great grandchild! A beautiful baby girl born to a handsome young father and pretty mother who carries on the strangest family tradition.

It is not a tradition started by my immediate family, but it is all in the family.

In 1955 a sixteen year old girl had a baby who became my brother's wife sixteen years later. Now, through similar situations that brother is a great grandfather to three children born to parents under eighteen. Their grandfather was only thirty five when it began.

So far all these children have managed to, at least, finish high school and one has her MA. I hope that tradition continues as well.

Children having children is not a tradition I am proud to have in our family, but I am glad they are managing to continue their education. They all love and support each other, but the saddest thing is their lack of knowledge.

Not one of them realizes, or understands, the experiences they have missed by taking on so much responsibility so early. They all stay close to home because they have to at that age. And the odds are better than even that their children will be constrained by the same ignorance that led a girl in the fifties to start this tradition.