Nov. 06, 2004 ~ Old things
My most recent entry, I'm afraid, was pretty silly. Some of my remarks were a bit much. People certainly do have the right to say whatever they want, even if it's not particularly nice (by my standards). So, sorry. I was somewhat overwhelmed by this long, drawn-out election campaign, and by the election itself. If I don't want to hear something or read something it's my responsibility to avoid it. So.
Yesterday I did not make a pie, but I baked a cake, using a mix. Took the easy way! The pie wasn't a priority, and by the time I was ready to start on it there wasn't time. The cake was faster. But when we were at the chili supper last night, I ate coconut cream pie! And it was delicious.
We finally have beautiful weather again, and I'm so grateful. It's 58 degrees and sunny. We've had lots and lots of rain, every weekend for the past month, which made it hard to do certain farm chores. Husband took four calves to sleep-away camp this morning. What? Auction? What auction? He took them to the cattle RESORT, thank you very much. The little ones take their sleeping bags and have a great time. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Yesterday I was sorting through some boxes of my mother's things. One box seeemed to be nothing but papers, and as I looked at each piece, I began to wonder if maybe I should just toss the whole box in the trash. If we hadn't needed anything in that box in all these years, chances were good that we could live without it. But then I happened on a couple of very old, rolled-up documents. They were, as best I could tell, a baptismal certificate and a confirmation certificate for my grandmother, whom I never met. I neither speak nor read German, and both documents were written in German. My mother grew up in a Texas Hill Country community where German was the first language. Everyone there spoke it when she was a child. It wasn't until WW II that the residents began speaking English on a regular basis. They saw what happened to Japanese-Americans and feared being sent to similar internment camps. I spent time with her relatives one summer when I was fourteen, and everyone in the house spoke German. Had I been there longer, I probably would have picked up the language myself.
Looking at the dates on the documents, I learned that my grandmother was born September 27, 1904. She died when she was 33, but had she lived, she would have been 100 years old this year. I will save these documents, for this person I never met and knew very little about. My mother didn't talk much about her family or her growing-up years.
Our home has become the repository for everyone's "things." We have what is left of my mother's, father's, and brother's possessions. Though my mother-in-law is still living, she is in a nursing home. Husband recently thought it best to remove some of the keepsake items from her home, and brought them here. The majority of them are too musty to bring into the house, so I don't know what we will do with them. So we have boxes and boxes of things we will probably never use or that I don't know what to do with.
Sorting through papers and pictures is hard. My mom saved the types of things that mothers tend to save, report cards and school papers, lots of photographs... about what you'd expect. It is difficult to throw them away, but honestly, we can't save everything. There are photos of people I don't know, and lots of little keepsake items of my brother's. He was a pro bowler and there were countless newspaper articles, lots of trophies and rings. He also collected baseball cards and there are boxes and boxes of those. In theory I should do something with them, take them somewhere to see if any of them are worth anything, but the very idea just makes me tired. There are lots of cute baby pictures of my brother, and I'm not sure what to do with them. He has no children, no one who would want those photos, and my kids don't want them at this point. So I am throwing a few things away and feeling guilty about it.
My house is now pretty clean on the surface... windows and curtains washed, cabinets and drawers and closets mostly organized, so I'm down to going through the boxes. It's just hard. You would think it would be easier, since time has passed since these people died, but it's still hard. It's like another good-bye, and I'm so tired of saying good-bye.
Husband is over at a friend's house now, helping him work his cattle. I should probably do some actual work, for my paying job (such as it is) and then I might go through another box or two. Yesterday I emptied four of them. At this rate I'll be done in about a year. Maybe.
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