A Trip Down Memory Lane

Grandma & Grandpa Will's Wedding

I spent all day going through my old cedar chest, looking at photos, old letters, an assortment of keepsakes. I made one pile of "Why did I keep that?" - ancient newspaper articles that mean nothing to me now, photos of people or places I don't even remember, some photos so discolored and faded they're not worth keeping. I found two tickets for a free dinner at Circus Circus Casino in Reno, only the tickets are 28 years old. That goes back to the few months that I lived in Reno and worked at Circus Circus. I even found my name badge and my Employee Manual (not much more than a pamphlet).

So some of those things went from the "Why did I keep that?" pile to the "I guess I'd better keep this a little longer" pile. That included handmade and store-bought birthday and Mother's Day cards from my daughter, birthday and Christmas cards from my Mom, postcards received from far-off places, and even some postcards that I sent to family members many many years ago.

 In the end, I only threw away a few odds and ends. Mostly I just organized things and put them back in the cedar chest. The chest itself is over a hundred years old, one of the few things I received years ago from my paternal grandmother. In the chest I found her wedding picture to Grandpa Will, who was many years older than my grandmother. They had three sons, of which my father was the youngest. I even found a photo of my Dad when he was just a little tyke with his two older brothers, his dad and his uncle. They were all eating watermelon.  I realized those "ears that stick out" were passed on down to my grandson. So now I can tell him where he got his ears (actually, the ears came from both of my grandfathers).

My Dad (the little guy) with his Brothers, Uncle & Father

I found my old baby album with a picture of me at 2 weeks old with my Mom. I was a skinny little preemie born a month early. Another photo of me at 3 months old shows I quickly started gaining that baby chubbiness. I found some black and white photos of my parent's wedding. They were so cute and so young, only 18. My head is spinning with all those old stories and old memories. Some things brought tears to my eyes, others made me smile. I don't know if it was good or not to take this trip down memory lane.