Granny J offered on january 15, 2008, that she reads to her mother and her mother recites portions of what she had memorized previously.

For the past couple of years, as Mom's short-term memory has slowly eroded, I've found that she really enjoys having me read poetry from her past. Often she will recite bits and pieces along with me; she is definitely of those generations that were required to memorize all manner of verse and oratory, as well. R.L. Stevenson ...Whittier... Longfellow ... Riley ... Wordsworth ... Burns ... Scott, among others ... realize just how being able to recite the same words bound old and young together across the generations.

Thankfully, my teachers required us to memorize other people's words. To prove we "committed them to heart," each of us individually stood before everyone else in class and recited the same poem, speech, or excerpt from a noted orator in a previous generation. I took advantage of Paula and several other girls wanting to recite first, assignment after assignment. Their recitations gave me a chance to practice silently before it was my turn to stand and deliver.

Like Granny's mother, I find myself sometimes reciting bits and pieces of this common literature at odd times. Sometimes a grandchild says something that triggers my response. For example, Kimberly might say, "If, (and then pause)." More than once I've said out loud, "...you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, and blaming it on you, ..." I'm lucky, because, Kim also memorized Kipling's poem If one summer between elementary school grades, and we can recite it together.

I've often wondered what young people today will have to talk with their younger generation. What have their teachers required them to stand-and-deliver, personally, in public, on demand, just because some people of authority consider it a good set of words to remember? What words of wisdom will they recite as guidance for their lives when their judgment falters, their world seems chaotic, or they want to concentrate on in order to endure yet another pain?

As teachers, it seems that we have short changed youth when we do not expect them to carry forward bits and pieces of accumulated wisdom from our pasts. Some call these bits of the Western Canon, as though their preservation means nothing except bad news to future generations. I wonder ...

Thanks, Granny J., for sharing about your time with your mother. And thanks for using your journalistic skills to produce an insightful blog about the former frontier town of Prescott, AZ., where individual responsibility and integrity still prevail. Yep, "a bunch of old people live here," as my grandson said.

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