Old Glory, How About That?

Hannah, there is one person I wish you could have met before she traveled on to other worlds: my mom's mom, your great Grandmother, Beatrice H. Brown. Most everyone called her Betty; I always called her Grandmom. She respected everything in the world, and in turn, everything in the world seemed to show her respect. She was born this day in 1917. I think you would absolutely LOVE her, as her favorite thing to say was "Now that's a curious thing," and your favorite thing to say is "How 'bout dat!" Perhaps you see the word like she does. I like to think that you do, or that you will... I do not have many pictures of Grandmom to share with you, but her personality shines throughout the few I do have. Here are a couple pictures taken in 1982, when I was eight years old and Grandmom was sixty-five. They are from a children's book written about my family maple sugaring in Vermont called Sugaring Time. When I read passages from this book and look at the pictures, I feel like she is sitting right next to me, turning the pages:

"One morning, the melting, earthy smell of spring up in the meadow suddenly turns sweet a few hundred feet from the sugar house. Steam rolls out the open ends of the house and smoke rises from the chimney in back. Being inside is like sitting in a maple cloud surrounded by the muffled roar of the fire and the bubbling tumble of boiling sap. Betty Brown and the children are there, their cheeks wet and shiny in the maple mist. This is their first celebration, except birthdays, since Christmas. Boiling time is like a party, a party that celebrates mud and greenness, sweetness and renewed life... Alice (my Mom, your Grandmom) scoops up cups of boiling sap and steeps tea bags in them for sap tea. The children drink it while sitting on logs, using up-side down buckets as tea tables. After they finish, Betty leans on her walking stick listening to the thrum of the fire and the wild din of her grandson Jeremy (your uncle) beating a raucous sugar song on the upturned buckets... [Later] Jeremy, lulled by the bubbling tumble of the boiling sap, is just the right size to fall asleep in his grandma's arms."

Every minute is a celebration to enjoy and ponder to your Great Grandma Betty. I say "is" instead of "was," because your Great Grandma assured us all that she would be embarking on greater adventures upon departing this world. I take her at her word. Perhaps she has been able to stop by San Francisco in between her adventures and catch a glimpse of you growing up. Again, I like to think so. Today, her birthday, is conveniently "Flag Day." It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened that day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress. Flag Day is not an official federal holiday, though on June 14, 1937, Pennsylvania became the first (and only) U.S. state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday. Title 36 of the United States Code, Subtitle I, Part A, CHAPTER 1, 110 is the official statute on Flag Day; however, it is at the President's discretion to proclaim officially the observance. This poster is from the same year Betty was born.

Happy Flag day! Happy birthday Grandmom!
To mud and greenness, sweetness and renewed life...
How 'Bout Dat!!!!