Wiseman, S. (2014) Building a nest. Mixed media.
A family migration study
detail from "Building a nest"
Birds take flight, they fill the sky with their intricate flowing patterns, moving toward a better place: migrating. I suppose that is what families do. They try to be in a good place, making it a little easier for the next generation.
That’s why the Schmidts, my great grandparents, left Germany behind on their honeymoon to the States with only their trunk filled with their best clothes to begin a new life. Their eldest daughter, Louise, was obsessed with hiding her German heritage, always seeking to fit in and be well liked especially during a time when Germans weren’t very popular. She married a handsome Italian named Joe Benedict, with a legendary dry sense of humor that was often lost on her. They lived out their lives in a tiny little house in Nashville, where they raised their only child, my dad.
Down in south Alabama, Annie Laurie MacMillan and her clan raised two boys and a girl. She was the apple of her eldest son’s eye, Sam Bailey. Her unexpected death at age 51 was too much for him to bear, and the moment he graduated high school, he left the town far behind to find something better. He found a job as a traveling salesman for Belknap, a large hardware and furniture company out of Kentucky. He settled in New Tazewell, Tennessee, with a spunky and sophisticated young Lyndon Buis. She was the baby of 6 sisters, the eldest sister became the first female sheriff of Tennessee – she wasn’t elected sheriff, she was just allowed to take over the office after her husband died. No one questioned her ability or authority. This comes as no surprise, the Buis sisters were a formidable crew. Sam and “Ted” as she was known – her father gave all of his daughters boy nicknames, hers was the only one that stuck – settled into a big house with a large piece of land for a gentleman farmer. They raised their three children in this small town, and on Sundays, my Sam was known to stand up after the service and invite the congregation over for homemade ice cream – these spontaneous socials were never pre-approved, and left Ted scrambling to prepare for a large party in minutes. He would rig the crank of the ice cream freezer to the tractor, making his job pretty easy.
My parents met while living in the same apartment complex in Knoxville, TN. My mom had big plans to move to New York, but instead found reasons to stay. I left Knoxville for college in Alabama, no plans to ever return. Thirteen years later, I did. As it turns out, this is a pretty good place to raise a family.
I think about how the generations that came before us did their best to find a good place for their family. I look at these two little eggs in my nest and I hope to give these boys everything they will need to soar even higher and fly a little further than any of us who came before them.
That’s why the Schmidts, my great grandparents, left Germany behind on their honeymoon to the States with only their trunk filled with their best clothes to begin a new life. Their eldest daughter, Louise, was obsessed with hiding her German heritage, always seeking to fit in and be well liked especially during a time when Germans weren’t very popular. She married a handsome Italian named Joe Benedict, with a legendary dry sense of humor that was often lost on her. They lived out their lives in a tiny little house in Nashville, where they raised their only child, my dad.
Down in south Alabama, Annie Laurie MacMillan and her clan raised two boys and a girl. She was the apple of her eldest son’s eye, Sam Bailey. Her unexpected death at age 51 was too much for him to bear, and the moment he graduated high school, he left the town far behind to find something better. He found a job as a traveling salesman for Belknap, a large hardware and furniture company out of Kentucky. He settled in New Tazewell, Tennessee, with a spunky and sophisticated young Lyndon Buis. She was the baby of 6 sisters, the eldest sister became the first female sheriff of Tennessee – she wasn’t elected sheriff, she was just allowed to take over the office after her husband died. No one questioned her ability or authority. This comes as no surprise, the Buis sisters were a formidable crew. Sam and “Ted” as she was known – her father gave all of his daughters boy nicknames, hers was the only one that stuck – settled into a big house with a large piece of land for a gentleman farmer. They raised their three children in this small town, and on Sundays, my Sam was known to stand up after the service and invite the congregation over for homemade ice cream – these spontaneous socials were never pre-approved, and left Ted scrambling to prepare for a large party in minutes. He would rig the crank of the ice cream freezer to the tractor, making his job pretty easy.
My parents met while living in the same apartment complex in Knoxville, TN. My mom had big plans to move to New York, but instead found reasons to stay. I left Knoxville for college in Alabama, no plans to ever return. Thirteen years later, I did. As it turns out, this is a pretty good place to raise a family.
I think about how the generations that came before us did their best to find a good place for their family. I look at these two little eggs in my nest and I hope to give these boys everything they will need to soar even higher and fly a little further than any of us who came before them.
