This Christmas, my sister got me the greatest gift ever. She didn’t get me a Kindle or an iPad. She got me Story Cubes.
For as long as I can remember, my mind has always been full of crazy stories. Whether it be real ones or imaginary ones. I don’t just ride in a car, I create stories in my head while I ride in a car. You get the idea. So this was kind of a cool, thoughtful gift from my big sister!
The idea is to roll the dice and then create a story involving all of the pictures on the “cubes”. They recommend to start your story with Once Upon a Time…. Where’s the fun in that though? I thought I’d just look at what I got on the cubes and think of how I can relate that picture to an ancestor!
- The skyscraper/city building. This makes me think of my Great Grandpa William L Moore, who worked for over 30 years in NYC for AT&T as an accountant.
- The sheep reminds me of my Scottish ancestors, both the Loves and Menzies. I’ve recorded the Loves in Paisley, Scotland for many years. Paisley was a hub for the weaving industry and the birthplace of the Paisley pattern. (Which happens to be one of those things that I’ve always loved.)
- Pyramid. The pyramid reminds me of Egypt. Which I’m obsessed with. The history of that place! It connects to my family history because one of the Menzies girls married a guy who traveled to Egypt for business regularly.
- The Parachute. Aviation is HUGE in my father’s side of the family. Not just my father had the aviation bug. I have numerous newspaper articles that congratulate some of my family tree branches on their completion of flight school.
- The cane reminds me of a very near and dear person. My grandma Emogene Taylor-Mays-Utter and her second husband, Wayne. In the final years of my Grandma’s life, she had dementia. Not alzheimers, but dementia. Dementia is a very tricky business because the person who suffers from it doesn’t lose memories so much as they do their personality switches on a dime. One minute she’d be fine and nice, and the next… well watch out! The cane comes in because her husband carved her a cane from solid oak. On the cane was a section that was carved out for marbles. He told her as long as she had that cane, she’d never lose her marbles. Such a sweet man, he’s dearly missed too.
That leaves me with the fountain, dice, bridge and clock. Right now nothing comes to mind but maybe as I learn more stories something will!
