BANKS WINTER-SPRING 2012
A Mother-In-Law’s Gift
Mark your calendars, and plan to attend the
77th Reunion of the
Thomas Marion Banks Family
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Details in the next newsletter!
by Ed Banks
Upon the death of my Grandmother Ethel in 1974, many of her belongings were given to various family members. Aunt Martha found a bundle of old letters in a chest. They had been written by my dad to my grandmother while he was away serving our country in WWII. He was killed in combat September 13, 1944, a month before my birth. Aunt Martha brought the letters to me, insisting that I preserve them. I put the letters away in a safe place, unread. I was too busy and too young to take time to delve into the past and stir up painful memories. But I knew that someday I would have to read those letters and get acquainted with my father whom I had never seen. Finally, a few years ago I mustered the courage to read the letters. I picked a day when I was home alone. It was an anxious time. What if my dad wasn’t what I envisioned? I sorted through the letters and arranged them according to dates. I began to read. I was surprised. It Groves & Ethel Banks was almost like reading something I would have written myself. More than that, some of the statements and phrases sounded like what I had heard from my son, Alan. I was overwhelmed by the recognition of the power of genetics. As I read, the first letter told of his first days in the Army at Fort Benning, Georgia. He enlisted in 1940, over a year before the Pearl Harbor attack and the beginning of World War II. He wrote regularly to assure the family that he was well. The letters told of all the places his outfit visited for training maneuvers in preparation for going to the battlefront in Europe. They camped in Florida, the California desert and finally spent the winter in the northern States getting used to living outside in the cold. In one letter he asked Grandmother to make some more caps and send them to him. He said the men liked them and he could easily sell them. I was puzzled. What kind of cap could my grandmother have made that soldiers would want? The answer came surprisingly a couple of years later from my wife. One evening Marlene was making something with crocheting. I asked what it was and she said, “It’s a winter cap for our grandson.” It looked just like the storebought knit caps that you wear in cold weather. She further reminded me that she learned to crochet from my mother soon after we were married. My mother had told her, “My daughter-in-law must know how to crochet.” Furthermore, my mother was taught to crochet by my Grandmother Ethel who had made those caps for the soldiers in World War II. It was a gift passed down to daughters-in-law twice over. And now, every winter Marlene crochets our grandson, Jacob Thomas(J.T.), a new winter cap. This past year, Marlene also crocheted little blankets to keep J.T.’s stuffed animals warm for the winter. Pleased at the sight of his furry friends huddled together wearing their blankets, he smiles for the camera— proudly wearing the special new cap made by his Meme!
Ed & Marlene— Grandparents Day at J.T.’s school