While he was sleeping...

While Rick was away (and since it was my Spring Break), I dove into something that I'd been wanting to do for quite some time.  Six years to be exact.

See this metal file box?

 

It's been sitting in my closet for ... well, six years.  Almost exactly. 

 

It belonged to my mother and father. It was, I had believed, filled with very important, valuable, indispensable, irreplaceable, never-to-be-let-go-of papers that belonged to my mother and father.

Nine years ago, I lost my father. Six years ago, I lost my mother. This week I was finally ready, willing and able to open the box. And what a box it is.



 Did it have anything important inside of it?  Oh yes.  Yes, oh yes.

This receipt for concrete?  Irreplaceable, I'm sure.  I know I could never replace this.

 This stapled together pile of receipts?  Again, irreplaceable.  I'm so glad that my mom hung onto these.  I'm even more glad that I hung onto these for an additional six years.  They're all dated back into the '60s.  So, uh, yeah.  They're important.  'Cuz anything from the '60s was important.  I guess.

This little trinket mesmerizes me.  And causes my heart to race.  Anything with that many numbers and with that much responsibility attached to it gives me the vapors.

 

 Another vapor-causing list from way back when...

The next thing I found was this precious little tidbit.  I was quite the arteest back then.  And I can SO see why they saved this.

Yeah ... not my best work.

 

 

 

This little second-grader found herself in quite a lovely diamond-studded frame.  Or plastic.  Or dirty plastic.  Worthy of being kept?  No, but that frame is a classic.

 



The two above receipts represent the house that I grew up in.  Okay, I'd save these, too.  The house was bought in 1958.  I was a year old and had my very first birthday in that house.  It wasn't sold until 2007.  That house went through a lot with all of us.  Well worth the $20,900 my parents paid for it.

Can you even imagine...

This receipt makes it all worth is.  A hardware receipt.  Yep, hardware.  Hardware is important, you know.

 

But the piece de resistance?  This....

 

 

 

 

I, apparently, had wonderful taste in greeting cards.  And I guess I sent this one to my parents.

 

And they saved it.  Because ...

 

... they had to.  It was from someone very special.  SO special that she had to explain who she was below her name.

 

Yeah, she was special.

 

I wonder if they ever figured out who I was ...

 

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