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07/15/2003 Entry: "Vacations and coming home"

We just returned this afternoon from a much needed vacation (holiday - see, I still speak English!). Our 2,500 mile round trip included two visits with friends in Louisville, Kentucky. On the way up we dropped Chris off at the University of Louisville for a week long jazz improvization camp. We stayed with Pastor Jim Seelhorst and his family, friends of mine since 1979 when we were all at Kentucky Wesleyan together. We were also reunited with Melody Medley and met her family. I had not seen her since 1983. Then, we were off to Riverview, Michigan where we stayed with my sister Ann and her family for a few days. Those days included a tour of the Ford Museum in Dearborn (near Detroit) and a visit to a street festival that included a look across the Detroit River into Canada. (We ran out of time or we would have visited out of the country again this summer - but not quite the same thing as going to Wales and England.) Debbie, Rachel and I also did some family history work as we visited Grand Rapids, the former furniture capitol of the world (800+ factories at her peak in lower Michigan). There we delivered to the Grand Rapids museum the 1865 Wedding Certificate of my great-grandfather and grandmother, James M. and Lucy C. Barnett. We also found the site of their house not far away. They and her parents were settlers and prominent citizens of Grand Rapids. I also got to tour the 1915 Swiss Chalet style house built by their son and my grandfather, James Foote Barnett. It was strange to see for the first time the house that my mother grew up in and later raised her first two sons in with her first husband. We visited my grandmother's and great-great grandparent's graves not far from the first Barnett home. I came away with a new appreciation for the strength and courage, fortitude and determination of our earlier settlers who left much of their established lives "back east" much as their forebearers had over a century or more before when they left places like England, Wales and Germany to make their way in this new world.

The trip also included connecting with a first cousin whom I had not seen in almost 40 years (we were raised in different states and just didn't get togther). He and his wife have a gift shop in Springboro, Ohio in an old house that they are pretty sure was on the Underground Railroad. It's called "Aunt Susie's Gifts" and can be found on the WEB. Greg also shared a picture of my grandfather, Harvey Darling, when he was a baby in 1884. I also got to see a portrait of my Grandmother Bertha Lehman Darling whom I had never met either. She died two or three days after my mother was born at the end of 1918 (probably Spanish Flu that turned to pneumonia). My mother was adopted by the Barnetts at age 2 1/2 and never met her natural father. So, now I find myself reconnecting with a family that has loads of cousins all over Michigan. I guess I'll have to attend a family reunion someday just to meet them all.

On Friday we picked up Chris after hearing his Jazz combo perform, visited with the Seelhorst one more night and made our way south. We didn't have any specific plans from there on, so we actually decided to "See Rock City" at the top of Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee. We went through this facinating human enhanced granite rock garden at the top of the mountain and then saw Ruby Falls in a cave deep inside the same mountain. We had driven by all of this since I was a kid and had seen signs all over the eastern United States painted on barn roofs and bird houses that said "See Rock City". but never did until now. All the Corbins were pleasantly surprized at what we thought would just be a tacky tourist trap.

On our last day, we went to Underground Atlanta, had lunch at Micky's, toured the Coca Cola museum and paid a visit to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Historical site that included Ebenezer Baptist Church (where I took my first preaching class under still pastor Joe Roberts with a visit from Daddy King one time who said "Preachin is hard and preachin is hollerin!"). This visit was a very sobering and thought provoking one for the Corbins as we retraced the steps and sacrifices of the American Civil Rights movement. This included watching a movie about the influence of Black youth since the 1930's and the sacrifices they made for civil rights. What was interesting to me and noted by the rest of my family is that we were in the minority that wholed day in the theatre, downtown Atlanta and at the King Center. Most of the folks around us were African American. Forty years ago, a day like Sunday would not have been possible for any of us. But, we still have a long way to go. Leading up to the Center is an area of decay and poverty that is still a source of struggle for many inner city Americans.

For me, this was a journey into my roots where part of my family even had maids and butlers and were definitely part of the "Haves", but I'm glad my children were more impressed with the King Center than the contributions my Barnetts made to the city of Grand Rapids.

We didn't get there, but just one hour north of Grand Rapids are the graves of my great-grandfather and mother and his parents. William Davies and his mother and father, James Davies and Martha Harries Davies are buried near their own farm (they left Haverford West as farm laborors) in Stanwood, Michigan. I am proud to be a part of all that makes me me, my family what it is and our country the melting pot (and troubled stew that it sometimes is). This vacation for me was a way of coming home long before we pulled into our driveway today.

I hope this rambling passage stirs some thoughts and memories of home, heritage and family for others.

Peace.

Ivan The Crank

Posted by Ivan The Crank @ 07/17/2003 07:37 PM CST

Fascinating stuff! A distant relative of mine has started some research into the family tree on my mother's side & has traced back to Wiltshire origins in the 1700's. A cousin I met up with at a funeral recently said only last evening " and I always thought the family was Welsh!" Just goes to show.

Posted by Patricia @ 07/16/2003 08:06 AM CST