The "It Must Be In The Genes!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Our grandson's first baseball game of the new season and Carol and I are naturally in attendance.  Day proved to be sunny, but rather chilly.  Not the perfect day for Grandparents to be along the sidelines, but hey...you do what you have to do.  And, we have to be sitting in the cool air, bundled up, watching a baseball game.  When my oldest son began playing baseball I was his coach.  I coached him for two years and realized he needed better competition if he was going to get better so I inquired about the next level of competition.  The team already had a coach so I decided to let my son play for the other coach.  The team was very good and my left-handed son, who happened to be a pitcher, succeeded for the next two years with his new coach.  Well, that coach was in attendance at my grandson's baseball game today, since his grandson happened to be on the same team.  As soon as I saw him I approached him to talk a bit about our grandsons and baseball.  As soon as he saw me he shook my hand and said, "Your grandson throws with the wrong arm!"  

If you're wondering what he meant, he always loved coaching my son because my son was a left-hander.   My son eventually became one of the best baseball players in Lancaster County and was rewarded with a full scholarship to play the game he loved at Villanova University.  The pros came calling in a few years, but an injury to his left arm nixed the chance to play professionally.  Having a left-hander in the family wasn't new to Carol and me since my younger brother was born a lefty and Carol's cousin, who played professional baseball, was a lefty.  I grew up seeing all the things my brother had to conquer during his lifetime as a lefty so when my oldest son threw his first ball left-handed, I knew what he was in for during his life.  Carol and I talked about the problems our son was going to have in school since we both remember teachers striking you on the hand with a stick if you didn't hold your pencil in your right hand.  

During first grade our son's teacher brought in another teacher who was also left-handed to teach our son how to hold his pencil and how to position the paper properly.  I was lucky to live, as well as teach, in a school district that felt it necessary to instruct students no matter how different they may be from the majority of the other students.  That meant both mental and physical differences.  Most people, unless you have a child, relative or may be left-handed yourself, don't realize all the problems that go with being left-handed.  Little things like buttoning your shirt differently or having to reach across your plate to pick up the correct utensil for eating are minor to us, but can be a big deal for a child.  And, when school starts you have to sit in a chair that you slide into on the left side since it has the writing board part on the right side.  When it comes to cutting you have to learn how to use right-handed scissors.  Have you ever thought about the fact that we live in a right-handed world?  

Left-hander Albert Einstein.

Driving a car is geared to someone right-handed.  Playing many musical instruments is geared to right-handers.  In school you have spiral notebooks, writing in a three-ring binder, ball-point pens don't work correctly at times, the number pad is on the right side of some computer keyboards.  Even cooking can be a challenge since measuring cups are meant to be used by right-handed people.  If you took the courses I taught in high school, you needed to operate your camera with your right hand and when running the printing presses, you had to operate them with with your right hand.  Controllers on video games are geared to right-handers.  Even the flippers on most pinball machines are geared to righties.  The list goes on and on and for right-handed people it's no big deal, but to lefties it can be a challenge so great that they give up at times.  But, one place where left-handers seem to excel is in sports.  In baseball my son was successful since many players see very few left-handed pitchers so he had the advantage on them.  

He may not be left-handed, but he can still throw hard!

Left-handed batters are a few steps closer to first base, thus get there faster.  And, a left-handed boxer would have a great advantage since opponents don't know how to guard against the left hand punch.  There have been many famous left-handed people such as Leonardo da Vinci, U.S. Presidents George H.W. Bush, William Clinton and Barack Obama and talk snow host Oprah Winfrey.  And how could anyone forget the famous Albert Einstein who changed the world's ideas about time, space and being left-handed.  Well, my grandson doesn't happen to be left-handed, but he can still throw the ball using his entire body as well as his right arm which sent 6 of the first 7 batters back to bench after striking out.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "I Just Mailed My Spit!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Talking with my daughter-in-law Barbara's mother Etta.  Etta found in the past few years that she has ancestors who came to the New World on the Mayflower.  I recently framed a certificate for her that she received from the Mayflower Society which was organized in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1897.  The Mayflower arrived at Plymouth in 1620.  And...one of those that stepped ashore was related to Etta.  Wow!  Since my conversation with Etta, I often wonder what and whom my relatives might have been and from where they traveled to arrive in the United States.  

The kit inside this box.

Seems that there is no cure for genealogy fever and the only way I could treat my curiosity was by doing some research.  As I began researching I found that tens of millions of Americans have at least one ancestor who was among this group of early settlers who arrived on the Mayflower.  Could I also be one of them?  On Christmas morning, one of my gifts I from my wife was an AncestryDNA kit that can be used to determine your ancestry.  

Step one is to register online.

Wonder who might have mentioned they might like one for Christmas.  The Ancestry- DNA kit allows you to give a sample of your DNA and mail it to Sandy, Utah for analysis and then get you on your way to determining your heritage.  The kit came in a small cardboard box that included an instruction folder, telling you exactly what to do with the kit.  

The plastic tube is shown here.  It is about 5 inches high.

In the kit was a plastic tube with a funnel attached to it, a special cap filled with a blue liquid, a plastic pouch and a small cardboard box with a mailing label on it.  First step told you how to register the kit online which was very easy to do.  Next step was to fill the plastic tube with saliva to the line printed on the tube.  

The final step is to remove the funnel top and place a
screw top on.  That tip contains a blue liquid that will
stabilize the saliva so it can be analyzed. 

I found that when I spit saliva into the tube, there were many bubbles.  I had to spit a few times in order to get enough liquid into the tube.  The bubbles seemed to disappear quickly.  Next I removed the funnel top and replaced it with the screw top with the blue liquid.  The top screwed on easily, but I did have to apply quite a bit of pressure to turn it hard enough until the blue stabilizer liquid ran into the saliva.  A few quick shakes and the saliva was blue also.  Made sure the top was on tight and placed the tube in the plastic envelope.  Sealed the envelope and placed it in the small box.  Ready to be mailed.  After they receive my bottle of saliva and test it, they will send an email to me based on my activation information.  Then I can go back online to find the results.  Sound easy?  It really was.  

Saliva ready for mailing.

I now have to wait to see what they find.  After receiving my results I will have to decide if I want to continue a more intense search into my heritage as Etta did.  I did begin to set up my family tree on the AncestryDNA site, but have to work more on that.  I also opted to sign up with AncestryDNA to allow them to use my results in a scientific research project they are developing.  I was told that if they find out more about my heritage, they would share it with me.  I feel as if I have just begun the journey to find where my family first began in history.  Exciting, so it is.  I will post the results I receive.  Until then, I will wonder if I too might have been related to someone who landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Place the tube in the plastic collection bag.

Place in mailbox.