I’ve found these stories tremendously interesting to read and although mine will be boring I think, I’ll take a stab at it in hopes that others will also contribute.
I recently researched my family tree. Very fun and I would suggest anyone do the same if they have the time.
I learned that my father’s family comes from a long line of farmers in Virginia (I knew the Virginia part already). My grandmother used to say we were related to Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, but I haven’t found the proof of that (yet). One grandfather was an apple orchard farmer and later a mailman, the other a weaver. My parents were both the first generation in their families to attend college. My mother’s family immigrated from Germany and I haven’t been able to get too far back on that side. But on my father’s side, it was kind of interesting that these families resided in the back country for hundreds of years with no real education (my great-grandfather couldn’t sign his draft card…just made an “X” mark…I’ve seen a copy of it). It appears they were cash poor and land rich. It also appears they were eventually driven out of the farmland and into the towns/cities by the Great Depression…they needed to find work.
Both my parents attended college…my father to Va. Tech (although he was told by a HS teacher that he'd never amount to anything and that he was wasting his time) and eventually to Stanford for his PhD in engineering.
My mother attended a small Catholic college in Maryland that is now closed. They got married during my father's senior year in college and had me (their 1st child) while at Stanford. I have some great photos they took from that era. They were dirt poor at that time. Yep, we had the "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree.
After grad. school at Stanford, they returned to Blacksburg where my father taught engineering at Va. Tech. He once won the most prestigious teaching award at the university. These were the best years of my childhood…small town, snowy winters, hot but comfortable summers in the mountains. Walked to school nearly every day. Summers were spent camping…I used to think everyone’s father had the summer off to do fun things.
We eventually moved to Cincinnati (age 10 for me) where my father taught at the Univ. of Cincinnati. Neil Armstrong came onboard there shortly after and became friends with my dad. He used to come to our house for dinner or cookouts and he was a really nice guy…his autobiography briefly mentions my father. My mother eventually taught there as well. She used to tutor football and basketball players there who were struggling and once had a nice article written about her and a basketball player in the Chicago Tribune.
Cincinnati is where I fell in love with baseball with the Big Red Machine of the 70s (I was in HS and then college). During college I used the co-op program to work 1/2 year and attend school the other half, putting me on the 5-year plan. I had my father for classes three separate times in college...he was the best teacher I ever had but I was sure scared the first time! I co-oped in California where I met my beautiful wife who was doing the same from Univ. of New Mexico. We got married 6 days after I graduated from college and together moved back to California where we worked and attended graduate school.
We had our first son 11 months later. I never, ever saw my father so happy as when he got to hold his first grandson (our 1st son). He was a great dad, but I saw a side of him then that I had never seen before. Unfortunately, my father died suddenly about a year and a half later and never saw another grandchild born. My mother lived another 20+ years and got to see all of her grandchildren born and one (ours) graduate from college…but she too passed earlier this year (today would have been her birthday). Very devastating for all of us. Both of my parents have endowed scholarships named after them at the college they last taught (Univ. of Cincinnati and Thomas More College in KY). My own proudest moment professionally was when I got to deliver the annual 'memorial technical seminar' at UC that is given each year in my father's honor. My mother, wife and kids were all there and I felt all goose-pimply doing it.
We had 5 other kids (4 boys and 2 girls total) and they are the center of our life. One is out of college now (and living and working on his own! YEAH!), #2 (baseball player) is almost out, #3 just started this Fall. #4 is a freshman in HS. Daughters are in Jr. HS and Elementary school.
To my knowledge, we have never been poor, but never wealthy either. My parents had enough money to do fun things (ballgames, camping, etc…), but we never had anything poured down on us. My wife and I started with about $500 to our name (our parents would’ve helped, but we wanted to go it on our own). We got a credit card and used it to buy groceries until we got our first paycheck. But shortly after that we were in decent shape financially and have been ever since. Certainly not wealthy, but able to do fun things and pay for college for our kids. We’re able to make roadtrips with our son’s college team when we really want too, but we’ve had to give up other family vacations to do so.
I’ve worked at the same place (NASA) for 27+ years and hope to retire in 7 or 8 years. I’d like to sell our house then and move either to the mountains or back to the Midwest. Photography is probably my most passionate hobby. I love taking photos of my kids playing sports or just goofing off.
I really like the way I was raised and have tried to pass that parenting on to my own kids. I’ve blown it a few times and so have they, but overall things are pretty good and it would be hard to ask for much more.
Lastly, I should say that my wife is probably the only woman who should have or could have ever married me. She loves the things I do and puts up with my grumpy moods...but tells me when I'm full of c.r.a.p when I deserve to be told. To me, she’s a saint! Our kids are tremendously lucky to have her as their mother. I am very lucky to have her as my wife as well.
) we were teachers making a combined income of 14K. My husband at that time was basically a young frustrated artist trying to break into the artistic world as all young artist strive to do. 
He worked with metal, welded steel and pottery. On a whim, one summer, we set up our garage as a working artists studio on a busy main street (zoned for business) and opened it to the public. Since we had so many people drop in, the next thing you know he had orders for work and to keep myself busy I added plants and antiques to our little garage store. What started as a summer artists working gallery became a full time business.
When my dad reached mid 60's he began to act very strange, by 72 he had a full blown case of Alzhiemer's. It was probably the most difficult time in my life because in the beginning no one had a clue of what was going on. A very intelligent charming man changed before our eyes. He passed on 12 years ago, my mom has a companion she has been with for 10 years and at 82, she still dances! Actually, she has a busier social life than I do!