The Ragmerchant's Family

Thanksgiving

2007-11-08T14:21:00.000-08:00

So, Turkey Day is upon us...almost...what are the travel plans for everyone? Who is going to be in Tulsa? Who is staying in their respective cities?

I know if you are in Tulsa you are, of course, welcome to our table for the celebration. Dinner is typically around 2 PMish (just let Delia know how many!). Some of the more traditional items for our meal include: Turkey (duh!), Becky's Mash Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Sweet Potatoes, Canned Cranberry's for Jamie (and others), Roads Rolls, Gran's Pumpkin Pie (her recipe) and Sarah's Apple Pie - plus much, much more! So, come join us!

Thinking of Thanksgiving brings back great memories for me of trips to El Reno to see Granny Ricker, the smell of Turkey as Uncle Jack carved it, Granny Ricker directing everyone in the kitchen, playing in the yard with my cousins after the meal, driving with Bamma and Boom-Boom to El Reno watching the Macy's Parade on their portable TV, Granny Ricker's pumpkin bread with butter, hearing family stories...and so on...and so on....

So many times I wish I knew what Thanksgiving was like with Minnie and Oscar as immigrants and new thankful citizens. What did a Lebanese Thanksgiving look like? What would they say they were most thankful for?

Help those of us in this younger generation know what Thanksgiving was like with Minnie and Oscar. Share your stories. What are your favorite Thanksgiving memories? Share them in the comment section of this site!

More Family Pics

2007-10-27T20:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pics of the Jimmie Saied Clan! Send us yours!

Bob, Jimmie and Dustin Saied - January 2004

Delia, Helen and Jimmie Saied - Christmas 2003

Becky Pierson and Helen Saied - Fall 2006

Almost all of Bob Saied's kids and grandkids - Christmas 2003 (a few more have been born since this picture!)

Delia (Saied) Pierson's Kids - Summer 2002 (less the grandkids)

Family Pics!

2007-10-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some family pics from the Jimmie Saied Clan! Send me your family pics and I will post them!

This one is of my younger sister and I with our "Kiss me I am Lebanese" shirts on. (It says that in Arabic)

This was from the big snow we had on the 23rd of December 2003. We almost cancelled our Saied Family Christmas because of all the snow, but decided to go ahead anyways. After we opened presents the grandkids (yes, us as adults) ran outside and started making a snowman. Soon we realized it was looking like Boom-Boom (Jimmie) and so went all out. He was quite impressed...what do you think?!

Jimmie as John Phillip Sousa...we should all recongize this one!

Sarah and Boom-Boom...the love of family...

This is Boom-Boom and his GREAT grandkids Jay and Megan. Jay and Boom -Boom had a very special relationship. It was beautiful to watch.

Some important links...

2007-10-14T11:24:00.001-07:00

I thought I would post some of the important, fun and/or meaningful links for our family:

http://www.weareellislisland.org/ - a site seeking to preserve the disintegrating buildings on the Island, specifically the hospital wing where Oscar's father died. Delia sent in a the story of Oscar to be posted on the site but i don't think its up yet.

http://yalibnan.com/site/ - a neat news and information website from a group of young Lebanese seeking to unify the country and help lead peace in the region

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon - the wikipedia link for our homeland

http://www.marjeyoun.net/ - this is a great website from Jdeidet, Marjeyoun, Lebanon that is contributed too by locals and families in the US. It tells the stories of some of the original settling clans of the area.

http://www.baladiyatmarjeyoun.com/main.html - the city website for Marjeyoun

http://www.saintgeorgeokc.org/ - where some of us attend church in OKC and a church helping to rebuild Marjeyoun after the conflict with Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

more to come later....

A story to tell...

2007-10-12T12:06:00.000-07:00

I paraphrased this from Boom-Boom's (Jimmie Saied) autobiography. It's Oscar's story...enjoy...

Assaid “Oscar” Saied’s Arrival (my great-grandfather on my mom’s side)
In the spring of 1894 my great-great grandfather, Said DeGaish, came to America with his eldest son, Assad (my great-grandfather), where he hoped to find a better way of life for the family left in Syria. He purchased steerage-class tickets on a steamship for approximately $10 each. During the voyage Said became deathly ill with smallpox. He was separated from his 16-year old son at Ellis Island in New York and taken to a hospital where he died. The family learned through research many years later that he was buried in a pauper’s grave in Manhattan.

Alone in the world with scarcely few familiar signs of sustaining life, Assad was at the mercy of the immigration authorities. As the story goes he was marked for deportation because of association with his smallpox stricken father. The mark was literally a chalk mark on his coat. However, seeing that he was a very healthy young man an immigration officer had compassion for Assad and gave him a new coat, saving him from deportation.
Grieving from the death of his father and isolated in the world, Assad, by the grace and guidance of God, managed to find his way to some family in Kentucky, who helped him become a traveling dry goods salesman. In his travels he met his future wife in Oklahoma Territory, married, settled down and had 9 children. Assad never gave up and knew that God had saved him from death and deportation. His faith and legacy laid the foundation for his dynamic family.

(Paraphrased from my grandfather’s autobiography, The Musical Trail of a Rag Merchant’s Son)

How this will work...

2007-10-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

As of right now I am the only one who can post on here. If you would like to be included as a regular "poster" let me know and I will set you up with access. If you aren't sure you want to be a regular poster but would like to add something every once in a while please feel free to just e-mail me your post and I will put it up.

I would also like to make this a place for regular updates on family happenings and other things like that. So, if there is a marriage, birth, death, significant event, etc. Let me know and we will post!

Questions/comments? Either post on this page or e-mail me at: beckers1976@hotmail.com

On the Staue of Liberty

2007-10-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

When Assad Degesh (Oscar Saied) and his father first came in to New York's harbor and saw the Miss Liberty, this poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty is how they felt and why they came:

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

For us, as a family, I know these words still reign true today...

This blog is created for us to have a place to connect and reconnect with one another. Its a place for us to tell stories, to tell triumphs, to share sorrows and to share wisdom learned and experienced through out the ages of our lives and our family. It is a place to laugh at ourselves and to rekindle a hope that our forefathers held when leaving Lebenon.

This is a place for us to celebrate the exiles, those who have left their home land in hopes of and in search of a better life. It is a place to celebrate the hope of dreams to come, dreams to follow, dreams to be achieved and dreams that have been achieved. We are a place, a family, of hope, of honesty, of truth and of integrity. We might have never been known by all the world but we know that to those who know us we have sought to give the world.

These are the stories of our lives and our journey together. Spread the word...get the internet buzzing...create a viral campaign for the family Saied.

Becky, granddaughter of Jimmie Saied, great-granddaughter of Oscar Saied