The birth of Gillian Brooke on 31 July 2011, was the highlight of the year
for parents, Jody and Bill Gilmyers, and Grandma Carole, as illustrated in “The
Year in Pictures.” Such joy to see Gillian grow and explore her world! For those
of you on Facebook, I’ll try and keep the photos coming.

A marvelous surprise for Carole, was when Bill told me that he had a
birthday gift for me in the garage, but it was too heavy to bring into the house.
Upon entering the garage, there was Tim, birthday balloons in hand who had
flown in from Portland, Oregon, to celebrate my seventieth birthday, 12
September 2012. Alas, Laura’s school and work demands prevented her from
joining us.

Tim and Laura continue to enjoy Portland, Oregon. Tim is Director of
Multimedia for DealerPeak, a company that develops websites for car
dealerships. Laura is continuing to work on a degree in music, specializing in
voice. Bill has accepted a job with Kaiser-Permanente in Oakland, and he and
Jody and Gillian and family dog Casey, a two-year old rambunctious black lab-mix,
have relocated to Walnut Creek. Of course I will miss having them close by, but I
love the Bay Area, having spent a graduate school year at Berkeley, and it is half-
way to Tim and Laura in Portland.

I have signed up for non-credit courses at California State University
Long Beach for the winter: “Conversational Spanish” (I took 4 years in high
school); “Memoir Writing”; and “Bridge.” I played a lot of Bridge in college when I
should have been studying, and I am looking forward to finding some new card
playing friends. Of course, I plan to continue my history research, and my
brother, Gary, gave me a fabulous Christmas gift. My father, in doing his
genealogical and family history research, taped “Conversations with Lola,” my
great aunt. Gary had those five old fashioned black reels, each about an hour
long, converted into CDs. These, along with “Memoir Writing” will provide grist
for my blog, Historymama that Tim has set up for me. Stay tuned!

Peace and love, Carole

Herstorymama

15 November 201

I sometimeswonder if “Facebook friends” is an oxymoron.  I just accepted an invitation from a woman Imet for the first time the other night at a fund-raising event given by twofriends I hardly know, but enjoy seeing.  Some months ago I accepted another invitation from a woman I do not know, because she has the same birth name as my mother’s side ofthe family. A photo of her cute daughteris her Facebook logo, so there is no way to identify her physically.  My brother is a mutual Facebook friend, but heisn’t sure who she is either. Question: is it polite to send “mystery friend” a message and ask who she is?!?

In myexperience, at my age, far past being carded when I buy a box of wine atTarget, of those who are on Facebook, maybe 25% use it, 25% don’t; and theother 50% don’t have time to bother with a lot of people they might have knownin some former life.  Another problem,for those of us who were born about the same time as television,  is having  trouble figuring out, what to us, is its rather arcane system of icons such as “thumbsup” if we like the message;  the”wall”; and status updates that are often boring as hell aboutcleaning out the garage or shoveling snow or something. Not to mention frequent changes to its web page that baffles even the Facebook fanatics.

So, why doI bother?  First, because thestatus updates often are funny  provocative,and intelligent, and they keep me in touch with those whom I might nototherwise.  For example, today I re-befriendeda former dear friend from New Hampshire, living in North Carolina.  Second, I enjoy keeping up with my kids, now married with families and dogs anda new granddaughter, and their friends, and this keeps me solidly in theTwentieth Century, if not exactly in the Twenty-First.  Third, I can show off  pictures of my beautiful granddaughter, born30 July 2011.

That’s it for today friends!  Stay tuned!

Carole

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For your mother’s day present I decided to set this up for you and and get you trained on how to use it. Sure, it’s not as difficult as carrying me in your womb for 9 months, or raising me through 18+ stubborn tumultuous years, but hopefully it will bring your pleasure and give you a fun outlet for your writing.

I hope you have a wonderful mother’s day. I love you.

Tim