Filling Grampa’s shoes
Monday October 21st 2019, 9:16 pm
Filed under: Family,Life

So much to say so I’ll just start randomly.

My sisters wanted to dive right in and so we did: we spent a morning going through Dad’s closet, the book shelves, magazines, giving away, recycling, throwing away, putting some things aside.

The twenty-year-old Fodor Guides to various countries? Out, with a wistful smile in the direction of how thoroughly our father had traveled the world. The ones that were only ten years old? Nobody’s going to look at those, you can get current information online. Out.

Sharkskin shoes. Dad had sharkskin shoes? Who knew?

Ten and a half was too small a size to tease my lawyer son with so they went to my niece’s four teen- to young-adult sons to try on. They looked comfortable, and someone would definitely get a kick out of them.

(The year, in Dad’s hand)

We found six–wait I think it was six–pieces of paper stapled together: one long narrow sheet per child with our Christmas wish list, probably cut just exactly so from printer paper on Dad’s old heavy office paper cutter with the scissor arm I remember being about as long as mine. I think it stayed in Maryland when my folks moved after retirement.

If you don’t give us a whole page we can’t write as much, but I think I squeezed the most in and I would have been turning six that month. Note that I’m the only one who added the bribing-pleading Thank you.

My 17-months-younger sister copy-catted the greatest of my ideas–especially that Mickey Mouse Telephone. Writing didn’t come as easily for her yet though so her list was a lot shorter.

The older kids all asked for a watch. We two younger girls asked for a play watch.

It occurs to me that I forgot to turn to that last page to see if my baby brother had scribbled anything. I don’t know if Mom still has it to go check or if it just got swept up along with so much other stuff in the tidying-out, but I’ll bet someone who looked at it (we all did) remembers.

I spent today at my own house massively tidying-out.

P.S. I did, I got the Hands Down game! I remember playing it!


5 Comments so far
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Talk about a busy weekend!

Praying for all of you to recuperate, peacefully.

Comment by Suzanne in Montreal 10.22.19 @ 7:00 am

Some precious keepsakes must be kept. Your dad thought so.

Comment by Jayleen Hatmaker 10.22.19 @ 7:01 am

Yes. all the treasures and memories. Along with shredding that which we don’t want found ?

Comment by Holly 10.22.19 @ 10:45 am

It is so sweet to know what one’s loved ones kept as reminders of us. Another way of knowing them.

Comment by twinsetellen 10.22.19 @ 12:57 pm

We found some really interesting stuff after my dad died (lots and lots of maps). Some things may have been HIS father’s, since I don’t know if he himself went to the 1939 World’s Fair, for instance.

Comment by ccr in MA 10.23.19 @ 11:30 am



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