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A rummage Christmas...
Dec. 25th, 2014 09:52 pmGalina and I slept in today, and once the day did get under way, I took some time to get into a box of my late mother's papers that I'd not gone through before, except on a "macro" level (i.e., the box was labeled "bunch of letters and stuff").
I learned today that my grandfather had been awarded a "War Bond Honor Certificate" because he was contributing 15% of his total pay to buy War Savings Bonds during World War II.
I learned, from a letter I sent to my parents from Marine Infantry Training, that my assessment of that phase of my military career was "tougher than [Parris Island], even." When I read that, I was a little surprised, as over the years, I had come to the conclusion that, while IT had been tough, it hadn't been as bad as boot camp.
I found a letter my mother wrote to her parents a scant three weeks before I was born, in which she expressed her concern for my granfather's health ("Please be reasonable and don't be embarrassed if they are not rushing you [at work]... please take it easy!"]. As it turned out, my grandfather died before I turned two.
I found an old Polaroid of Drew and Lee sitting on Santa's lap, which I scanned and sent to each of them.
And there were numerous photographs that, I have come to realize, I may as well throw out because there is no context within which I can place the image. I may keep a photo of my grandparents looking into the camera while sitting on a blanket with a picnic basket at hand, or even a shot of my mother, taken with her arm around a horse's muzzle at what looks like a farm when she was in her early teens, but a photo of her as an adult dancing with some guy I don't recognize? Today, I finally worked up the nerve to put photos like that (and there were a lot of them) in the circular file.
The work promised yesterday arrived today, and I've downloaded the files and made appropriate entries in my org files, but I won't take any kind of serious look at them until tomorrow at the earliest.
In other news, between yesterday and today, Galina and I binge-watched Mozart in the Jungle, which I was prepared to not like at first, but which had hooked me by the fifth episode. I look forward to a second season, if one comes about.
I hope everyone had a really good day.
Cheers...
I learned today that my grandfather had been awarded a "War Bond Honor Certificate" because he was contributing 15% of his total pay to buy War Savings Bonds during World War II.
I learned, from a letter I sent to my parents from Marine Infantry Training, that my assessment of that phase of my military career was "tougher than [Parris Island], even." When I read that, I was a little surprised, as over the years, I had come to the conclusion that, while IT had been tough, it hadn't been as bad as boot camp.
I found a letter my mother wrote to her parents a scant three weeks before I was born, in which she expressed her concern for my granfather's health ("Please be reasonable and don't be embarrassed if they are not rushing you [at work]... please take it easy!"]. As it turned out, my grandfather died before I turned two.
I found an old Polaroid of Drew and Lee sitting on Santa's lap, which I scanned and sent to each of them.
And there were numerous photographs that, I have come to realize, I may as well throw out because there is no context within which I can place the image. I may keep a photo of my grandparents looking into the camera while sitting on a blanket with a picnic basket at hand, or even a shot of my mother, taken with her arm around a horse's muzzle at what looks like a farm when she was in her early teens, but a photo of her as an adult dancing with some guy I don't recognize? Today, I finally worked up the nerve to put photos like that (and there were a lot of them) in the circular file.
The work promised yesterday arrived today, and I've downloaded the files and made appropriate entries in my org files, but I won't take any kind of serious look at them until tomorrow at the earliest.
In other news, between yesterday and today, Galina and I binge-watched Mozart in the Jungle, which I was prepared to not like at first, but which had hooked me by the fifth episode. I look forward to a second season, if one comes about.
I hope everyone had a really good day.
Cheers...
