Who's Your Daddy

Burkett, my brother, and I were talking the other day about ancestors. I'd taken Daddy to Decatur, AL to meet Burkett and my nephew at Burkett's new boat. While we were there, we took a trip around Decatur to look at a few family homes and cemetary monuments. We started talking about how hard it had been (and will continue to be for at least another generation) for our family to EVER have had a five generation picture.
My grandfather was born in 1865 and died when my mother was 15 in 1935. He was one of the few people in the county who could read. Mother remembered the KKK coming to the farm and trying to burn the barn because her family had "Aunt Sally" living with them. Aunt Sally was a former slave, (not of theirs! - Mother was mortified to find out a great grandparent had been given a slave as a dowery) - but to Mother, she was just another family member.
My dad's father was born in 1880 and fought in WWI. He was injured in France by AIRCRAFT fire. My mother's brother served on a ship which brought several soldiers back from France arriving in the US on Armistice Day in 1917, which may have included my grandfather who spent a year in a French hospital. My uncle was already in his 30's. My grandfather came home and around 1918 began working as a brake repair man on the L&N Railroad despite being paralzyed on his left side.
When you start talking about my great grandparents, we're looking at the 1830's - 1850's. In our family, you only have to go back 5 generations removed from me to get to relatives who fought in the Revolutionary War!
Lyn and Aaron were lucky enough to know all four grandparents and one great grandparent. I had one grandmother who didn't like me much and a grandfather who died when I was two. I was always jealous of my friends who had grandparents, but it didn't occur to me it was because they were still making out and making babies into their late 40's for the women and their 60's for the men. Can you IMAGINE a baby or even a 5 year old at this point in your life with no washing machine or indoor plumbing or a refrigerator? I am a spoiled weakling.