Sitting in the floor of my Aunt’s house, we chatted about memories. She passed across letters and Christmas cards saved for decades, I poured over newspaper clippings and paycheck stubs from the 50’s. It was an afternoon spent in the past and we both enjoyed it immensely. My Aunt loves to reminisce, to think back and then to share with future generations. I love history, the whys and whos of my family.
I also love snooping…the true hobby of a good anthropologist.
Some of my favorite finds were letters from my mom when she was younger of a Thanksgiving dinner she cooked after her mother died. It was a proud letter detailing just how well the dinner had come off, even though she had somehow added sugar to the cornbread. Then later we came across a letter from my grandfather, chronicling the same holiday feast. One of the first things he wrote? Sugared cornbread. I read a lot of letters but it was getting these two about the same event that was so special. While my mother is still around today, I’ll never meet the cautious teenager she used to be, paying careful attention to a recipe for a dish she hadn’t had to make before. I’ve never met my grandfather and it was like listening to him as I read his careful words on paper, “to my dear ones in Michigan”.
Of course, my favorite had to be the newspapers. I love old newspapers. The vivid history on the front page, the polite editorials, the ads for cheap groceries littered throughout, I even love looking at the forecast! My Aunt had a decent collection, some of important events, some with personal announcements and some that she obviously just felt like keeping but can’t remember the reason why any longer.
Out of all the clippings, this page is my favorite because of the sentiment in the middle. I’m a sucker for romance. My uncle loved my aunt so very much.
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