Wabash Traditions

The last several days have been happy ones. Our household spent as much time as we could cramming in time and as many activities as we could with our little brother, Ken and his son Justin. Our time together is precious and the visits are infrequent. Ken and his family work in Christian missions in Brazil. You can learn more about their work via their website, On a mission.

We don’t get to see him and his family often. When we do, it’s usually via a Skype conferences with sketchy WiFi.

For me, this visit was extra special because it was my first time to meet my nephew, Justin (my brother’s only son) in person. I adored him instantly and have been missing him terribly since he left. Nonetheless, we got to do some cool stuff together while he was here, including a tour of the Wabash bottoms, and ensuring he got to leave his mark.

Not long ago, I had the privilege of taking some young friends to write their names in The Old Red Covered Bridge, down in the Wabash River Bottoms. One of them is a favorite, frequent sidekick, Nathan.

Nate was kind enough to help introduce the old, local tradition to my nephew. I loved that it was something they both got to participate in, adding yet another generation of friendship to an existing one between families that spans two centuries..

Below are a few shots of our mini-adventure in the Wabash bottoms.

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My sister and brother sharing some bridge history with the boys.

Browsing...

Walking and counting?

How about here?

Nate pointing out examples.

After finding unmarked spots, both boys got their names inscribed. Afterwards they spent some time wandering through the bridge, asking questions and looking at other writing and engravings left over the decades.

The bridge was built in January (that alone is epic--January here is usually quite frigid!) of 1875. I've seen loads of pictures of it within my own familial archives and can imagine that's the norm for many folks in this area.

Many people have signed their names in various places on the bridge, on a variety of dates. I think a new trend we'll start will be multiple signs on different dates and in different colors.

If we don't have another opportunity to visit the bridge, I'm happy we had this one and that Justin got to leave his mark. I don't know of another Brazilian resident to have their name on Old Red.

Mission accomplished!

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​ShoutOuts

☙ Guardian Blue via On Story Street

☙ Resurrection of The Rose Bouquet via WarnerWords​

☙ Listen Up via marcoujor’s musings

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​Finish line!

That's it for this one!

God bless you, thanks for the read and hope to see you back again next week!

​Angelia