Stuff My Great-Grandparents Said

I recently mentioned having found my paternal grandfather's responses to one of those "Story of My Life" books full of writing prompts. Pop had answered the first prompt, and then proceeded to ignore the next ones in favor of making a list of "Quotes from my Parents, " which I'll share here, verbatim.

The phrases within the quotation marks are my great-grandparents' actual quotes, with context provided in my grandfather's hand.

MOM: Growing up in the city + off from school in the summer, we had to be back in the apartment after the sun went down because:
"There is no good on the streets after dark."

DAD: When I didn't think I could handle going to Regis High School (a scholarship school):
"If the other kids can do it, you can do it."

DAD: "Don't take yourself too seriously . . . if you do, no one else will take you seriously at all."

"Laugh every chance you get, there will always be occasions to cry."

MOM: "Get as much education as you can. No matter what happens in life . . . that is the one thing no one can take away from you."

MOM: On raising babies:
"Get them before they are two, or they will get you."

As I type these out, I find that they're a lot more revealing than I realized on first reading them, and I hope to do some more in depth posts unpacking some of them in the future.