Since I come from a Polish family...grandparents on both sides came from Poland....and married a man whose parents came from Italy--I have learned much first from my side, then from my DH's.......
As a little girl helping grandma strip duck feathers for not quilts but what were feather-filled coverlets that were so soft and warm as well as learning many peasant-type cooking recipes......some I did not get, which now I wish I had......I also was under the impression that all houses had a sewing machine as well as a stove and refrigerator-actually grandma on dad's side also had an old "ice-box"...very faint memory there.....how much we have evolved.........I don't think my children, who are now adults, have the same warm memories of family as I have....I tried to keep us together as a family, but life today really spreads families in many different directions.....