Genealogy Spare Time

What do genealogists do in their spare time? They still do genealogy! I know that because my Mom is a genealogist.

Whenever Mom had a spare moment she was doing or thinking genealogy. She was always at our softball games, baseball games and swimming lessons. She always had a book with her. That book was almost always something pertaining to genealogy. If there was a moment that she could read a few lines or a paragraph or even a page and chapter, she did it.

The books were always ready at a moment's notice for her to grab. Sometimes she would stash them in the car or in her purse. We never went to the doctor's office but what she had a genealogy book with her.

Mom says back in those days (1970s and 1980s) there were not as many genealogy magazines or periodicals. One that she subscribed to and looked forward to receiving was The Genealogical Helper. It's been around a long time...long before Mom got into genealogy. She always knew when it was due to arrive in the mail box and it had better arrive then or she was pacing the floor and ready to have words with the mail carrier.

When I was about fourteen years old we went to Hawaii for almost two weeks. I slept most of the way there. Mom read. The Genealogical Helper arrived (miraculously) the day before we left. By the time we landed in Honolulu, Mom had the entire magazine read. I can remember Dad saying, "Now what are you going to do?" Mom just grinned and I new she had plenty of reading material stashed in her luggage.

Those were the days when there were no restrictions on carry on luggage as far as weight and dimension. When we were at the airport to leave Honolulu, Mom and I had to take our carry on bags through inspection. They were looking for flowers and plants and fruit. They found books! I had my school books, which I did not want to take. Mom had her genealogy books. The inspector looked rather surprised and said normally people do not bring bags of books to Hawaii let alone return with them. He didn't find a single plant, flower or fruit...just books.

Mom read her genealogy books in the car while Dad drove. She said once she would get engrossed in what she was reading, Dad would start speeding. It was a thrill to him to speed and try to avoid getting caught. That usually didn't happen. Her reading would be interrupted by the sound of sirens and red lights flashing behind them.
Even though Mom does her own driving now, I know she carries plenty of genealogy books and magazines. There's always some time in the day that she calls her spare time to read.