Family recipes are more then just recipes

I was making Brown bean soup last night, and it got me thinking. I got this recipe from my mom, who got it from granny. I don't know who granny may have gotten it from or if it started with her. I was cooking with my son tho, and remembering talks with granny and my mom. I was telling My 10yo budding chef, who luvs brown bean soup BTW, that Granny used to fix tons of brown bean soup, potato soup, Chicken Noodle soup and put them up for the winter. Breakfast type things were Oatmeal, grits, rice cereal. It was Winter cooking. They would cook more then enough for the family in one sitting, especially because the meal was on the cheaper side. Stews and soups were winter meals, and an easier way to keep a big family fed over the season.
It also made me think that spending time with granny always led to stories. The only way you could get a recipe from granny was to cook with her. Because asking her for recipes you would always get told, a little bit of this, and a little bit of that. Granny never measured anything, she always had everything in her head, never wrote it down or anything. I learned alot of what I know of homemade cooking from my mom, who gives vague recipes of what to do.
Recipes were not always written down, and sometimes it was just a right of passage. Kind of like deer hunting to a young man. My son proceeded to ask me, well, why don't you write them down? It would be so simple too, to write it down and make sure it is not lost or anything. But if I did that, then I would be breaking a tradition of learning. A family recipe tradition of helping out and watching, paying attention and story telling. Yea, the recipe would be written down, then anyone could use the recipe.
Recipes in my family tho come with stories and memories. The types of things that you cannot write down. When youask for a recipe and Granny would say, come here, I'll show ya. Or my mom would say, well, we're having it tonight if you wanna help.
Now granny passed on a few years back. Some recipes I missed. I may never know how she made her cornbread, the only kind I liked, so sweet and tasty, and it melted into the chili, which I can cook. Not literally, but the flavors, kinda like a ham sandwich when you add cheese. The ham sandwich was good before, but the cheese added something that completed it. But at the same time, I will try, for those kids of mine willing to listen, to cook family recipes with them, and teach them, sharing stories and memories as we go along, and making a few memories of our own.