Well, you
never know what you’ll find when you begin opening boxes that have probably
been in the garage attic for close to 50 years. To say I was amazed by some of
the finds would be underutilization of that word. Haley found a box with a
bunch of cards and stuff in it. She grabbed one up and began reading, then
started laughing, and told me there was too much sex information in it and
handed it off to me.
I didn’t remember all the notes and
cards and stuff I gave to John back in the early months/year of our
relationship. And, as for the sex information, the cards didn’t contain
anything explicit…you needed to use your imagination. I had no idea John had
saved all of those. I figured if they weren’t in the trunk where I found a lot of other cards and notes, that he’d tossed them. I should have known better.
We also found some of John’s grade school
report cards. I sent those home with Haley for AJ to see and then AJ can pass
them on to Thor. Also found and saved his original birth certificate, his baptism certificate and his confirmation paperwork.
There
is still a box of stuff for me to look through. There is a scrapbook that
either he or his mother put together that's all about when he had polio. I just
took a quick look, but it appears all the get-well cards and other stuff having
to do with his hospital stay and recovery have been taped and/or glued into the
scrapbook.
There’s
another scrapbook that John himself must have put together. Again, I just flipped the pages and looked at some of the loose material. It has photos of
friends, and thank heavens, he identified the people in the pictures. For some
of them I wouldn’t have any idea who the person was without that. There are a 1960 Senior Prom, a 1960 Shoreline Girls Club Tolo and a 1960 All-City Rainbow Tolo. Each one is in the little holder you get with the photo. I believe the girl in the photos with John is Susan Little, the girl
he dated in high school. I also have to say that John was a rather sharp
dresser for those times. He was also a real cutie pie…Richie Cunningham style.
Susan’s
name came up not too long ago. She made a donation to the Lincoln High School
Scholarship Fund in John’s name when she found out he had passed away. I still
need to write her a thank you-note for that and I’m going to ask her if she’d
like to have the prom/dance photos. If she does, I’ll send them on to her.
Again,
I cannot understand why John kept this irreplaceable, and easily ruined by damp,
stuff in the garage attic. It’s not like I would have been jealous over the
prom/dance photos, or any other photos for that matter. And, having those
scrapbooks full of cards and photos would have been well worth sharing with his
sons at some point. I know my scrapbook of school memories is in the closet and
the boys did look at it now and then.
I
probably won’t sit down right away and look at the stuff. I’ve another project on
which I’m working. I do have a week before Haley will return to do some more
sorting. Unless she and AJ and Thor get stuff out of the other side of the
garage attic, we’ll have to do the shelves underneath the big workbench. I
think the majority of that stuff will most likely go to metal recycling. Who
needs rusty nuts and bolts, eh? More progress…slow but sure thanks to Haley.