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Ok, I don't think there's a real St. Clive's; November 29th is my personal, made-up holiday to celebrate C. S. Lewis in particular (it's his birthday) and, I guess, favorite authors in general (it's also the birthday of Louisa May Alcott and Madeleine L'Engle).
We had two post-Thanksgiving dinners scheduled for the same time, cold ham sandwiches, etc. at my middle sister's with the immediate family, and a complete traditional meal at some friends' house - something they do each year for their group of friends. I dropped Irish off at our friends' house and went on to Bremen to spend a few hours there before going back to join the other party for the rest of the evening.
Some of you might remember that after my dad's funeral, my step-mother wouldn't allow us to take any mementos from the house, not even small things that had belonged to dad before he met her. She redecorated a couple of months later, putting his stuff in storage and in January, as far as we know, she threw it all away. (My brother in law and a friend of his had even gone to her house over Christmas break - they were there for a Cowboys game - and she wouldn't let them take anything either, even though she had called my sister a month before to see if she wanted to come down and get stuff. She is just weird, let me tell you.) Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, we had our monthly dinner/birthday party at my mom's and Peggy told us that step-mom had sent her an album of photos from my dad's first trip to England in 1953 or 1954, when he was 12 or 13 (I need to check the dates) as well as a big envelope full of other photos. We were thrilled, to say the least.
Yesterday, there were four boxes in Peggy's dining room - step-mom had dug up some other things and sent them to her. There are a lot of photos - tons - as well as lots of dad's personal papers and genealogy stuff, plus some of my Uncle Lee's writing and his small collection of old (100+ years) Bibles and prayer books. There was a small ceramic souvenier bowl from King George's coronation in 1937 (which neither sister really wanted so I have it) and several complete collections of Player's cards, which actually have no sentimental value to any of us, so we're thinking about selling those and splitting anything we get from them. (Does that sound horrible? We never even knew they existed before - they actually belonged to Uncle Lee, not dad - and they're collector's items - and since they're of no sentimental value, it seemed to us there's no real reason to keep them.) In a couple of weeks, we plan to get together and go through the boxes more thoroughly to figure out what to split up and what, if anything, to get rid of. I suspect my youngest sister and I will end up with the bulk of it, just because we're more likely to hold onto stuff for sheer sentimental reasons, whereas Peggy (and my mom, for that matter) are more likely to figure there's no reason to keep a notebook of lecture notes from a class dad taught at Bethel College 30 years ago. It should work out very well. We can copy anything we'd all like to have.
We're figuring that, especially since there are lots of photos from when mom and dad were married, these were things dad had put carefully away that step-mom hadn't found when she redecorated last year because they're the sort of thing she probably wouldn't have wanted him to keep and we have no reason to think she kept anything she was aware of after redecorating. I'm so glad she sent them to us. I've been nominated to send a thank-you note, which I will do with all sincerity.
Christmas, it seems, has come early this year. It doesn't matter to me if I get anything else or not, because this is one of the best presents I could get. (Baby pictures of my dad! Uncle Lee's junior high autograph book! Letters to my grandfather from his brother in England! How cool is that!)
We had two post-Thanksgiving dinners scheduled for the same time, cold ham sandwiches, etc. at my middle sister's with the immediate family, and a complete traditional meal at some friends' house - something they do each year for their group of friends. I dropped Irish off at our friends' house and went on to Bremen to spend a few hours there before going back to join the other party for the rest of the evening.
Some of you might remember that after my dad's funeral, my step-mother wouldn't allow us to take any mementos from the house, not even small things that had belonged to dad before he met her. She redecorated a couple of months later, putting his stuff in storage and in January, as far as we know, she threw it all away. (My brother in law and a friend of his had even gone to her house over Christmas break - they were there for a Cowboys game - and she wouldn't let them take anything either, even though she had called my sister a month before to see if she wanted to come down and get stuff. She is just weird, let me tell you.) Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, we had our monthly dinner/birthday party at my mom's and Peggy told us that step-mom had sent her an album of photos from my dad's first trip to England in 1953 or 1954, when he was 12 or 13 (I need to check the dates) as well as a big envelope full of other photos. We were thrilled, to say the least.
Yesterday, there were four boxes in Peggy's dining room - step-mom had dug up some other things and sent them to her. There are a lot of photos - tons - as well as lots of dad's personal papers and genealogy stuff, plus some of my Uncle Lee's writing and his small collection of old (100+ years) Bibles and prayer books. There was a small ceramic souvenier bowl from King George's coronation in 1937 (which neither sister really wanted so I have it) and several complete collections of Player's cards, which actually have no sentimental value to any of us, so we're thinking about selling those and splitting anything we get from them. (Does that sound horrible? We never even knew they existed before - they actually belonged to Uncle Lee, not dad - and they're collector's items - and since they're of no sentimental value, it seemed to us there's no real reason to keep them.) In a couple of weeks, we plan to get together and go through the boxes more thoroughly to figure out what to split up and what, if anything, to get rid of. I suspect my youngest sister and I will end up with the bulk of it, just because we're more likely to hold onto stuff for sheer sentimental reasons, whereas Peggy (and my mom, for that matter) are more likely to figure there's no reason to keep a notebook of lecture notes from a class dad taught at Bethel College 30 years ago. It should work out very well. We can copy anything we'd all like to have.
We're figuring that, especially since there are lots of photos from when mom and dad were married, these were things dad had put carefully away that step-mom hadn't found when she redecorated last year because they're the sort of thing she probably wouldn't have wanted him to keep and we have no reason to think she kept anything she was aware of after redecorating. I'm so glad she sent them to us. I've been nominated to send a thank-you note, which I will do with all sincerity.
Christmas, it seems, has come early this year. It doesn't matter to me if I get anything else or not, because this is one of the best presents I could get. (Baby pictures of my dad! Uncle Lee's junior high autograph book! Letters to my grandfather from his brother in England! How cool is that!)
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