Home Last Night

WORD COUNT: 22,141

Last night when I got home from work we had received the first of three boxes my brother Bob in Florida is sending us of our dad's things. Mine and Bob's dad, that is; he is actually my father-in--law Robert's (Martha's dad's) age! Various tie clips, figurine-shaped music boxes, Kentucky bourbon bottles disguised as various American Legion emblems (my dad was a life member and he was district commander for the state of Illinois --

according to the plaque my mom had made, for the Department of Illinois for the year before my parents and I moved from Illinois to Florida) ... Martha was nice enough to let me open the box when she found it had arrived at the house today. She told the kids about it and for about forty minutes after I picked them up and brought them home it was like Christmas, taking turns opening what Bob had bubble wrapped and finding all this. There's even a camera from the 1950s, an Anscoflex II which I looked up to find out more about.

Two more boxes to go. We all look forward to that! For me it brings back some memories because I remember seeing some of this hanging on the walls, like a replica of the Great Seal of the United States and the abovementioned plaque hanging on my parents' bedroom wall growing up. He and his wife Diann needed to clear space out of their place in Florida and asked me ... perhaps I should say agreed to ship them to me, figuring I would appreciate them more. And I do, even if I don't recognize some of it.


And now back to the pen and inkwell, David