A footnote on yesterday’s footnote: Grandmother had a simple tool that helped her remember dates in the family chronology.
On the wall, hanging from a loop of maroon thread, was a perpetual calendar, 12 sheets of heavy stock, one for each month, with a tiny color picture at the top of each page. Below each photo was a list of numbers for the days of the month: 31 for January, 28 for February.
Grandmother was a great one for remembering birthdays. Beside Aug. 1, written in pencil, was my father’s name and 1924, the year he was born. Grandmother kept track of birthdays, marriage anniversaries and deaths. Sometimes, I think, there were other notes, perhaps the dates when entire families moved across the country or when people went to the hospital.
Grandmother had fixed points in her memory. The notes on that simple calendar refreshed her memory. That was how she kept track of the family's complicated chronology.
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