Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts “Show and Tell Friday” asking “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better! If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky. Guidelines are here.“
This last weekend my step-father and two sisters came up to visit from Texas, and we got together with my two sisters who live in a town about 30-40 minutes from here. All of my immediate family was together except my brother in TX who couldn’t come. It was the first time we had all been together since my mom’s funeral almost two years ago, and though there were a few sad moments of missing Mom, overall we had a great visit.
They brought a big tub full of old pictures and assorted papers, some from my mom and some from an old trunk of my aunt’s that she brought to them when she was downsizing to a smaller home. We spent Saturday evening going through all of that, laughing til we cried over some of the pictures, how we looked, what we wore, or the situation in the pictures.
There were several “historical” treasures there as well. My grandfather’s 7th grade diploma, my grandmother’s college diploma, his death certificate, her obituary notice were all there. There were also the books from each of their funerals:
Old recipes tucked into my mother’s baby book:
The baby book itself only had my mother’s name, weight, and a list of gifts received for the baby. I smiled over the fact that my grandmother kept up with baby books less than I did, especially with the third child.
There were pictures of my great-grandparents:
And my mom and two of her siblings when they were kids (my mom is on the right):
And me, around 4th or 5th grade:
My mom’s high school graduation picture:
One of the things I most treasured was my grandmother’s college graduation book. Her name was Harriet, and I hadn’t known before that she went by Hattie:
Inside was a place for autographs, school colors, and a homecoming ribbon:
Her school song:
And notes from the Commencement sermon:
My grandmother passed away when I was four years old. To have some her her things written in her own hand is very gratifying to me. I enjoyed getting to know her a little bit through these items.
My oldest son is scanning many of the one-of-a-kind older pictures, enhancing them (removing reddish or yellowish tones, making them clearer, etc.), to make CDs for each of us.
The background in these pictures, by the way, is my Aunt Dot’s crocheted bedspread that I mentioned a few weeks ago.
