Opinion

Memories that leaked out

Thursday, December 24, 2009

The week before Christmas when you are getting ready for family coming in is not the best time to discover a leaking pipe. It is especially bad to discover one that has been leaking for several days before it was discovered. To make matters worse, the leak was in tubing running to the icemaker in the refrigerator, but the tubing ran through the extra closet in our great-granddaughter's room.

Since that is an extra closet it is used for storing boxes of things that we don't use very often. In fact it stores things that have never been looked at since we put them in the closet, probably quite a few years ago.

I think you get the picture. The soaked rug spread to a fairly large area and soaked up the nice cardboard boxes that were stored in the closet, most of them on the floor.

The boxes were nicely labeled, so I could pull one out and find that it had souvenirs from the years we were in a certain town.

The first one I tackled was the box that was labeled "Archie." We were in Archie from 1962 to 1968. It was the first church that Lester served, and was the place we lived when our last child, Susan, was born. This caused many things to be saved. Programs from various school programs where the older three children sang, played an instrument, or were ushers. Church programs of special events were plentiful, and some of the events were things neither of us can remember today.

Ball game rosters for the Archie basketball team when Michael was the manager, and choral and band contests at Warrensburg where both Shirley and Michael played and/or sang.

Mark was a Cub Scout during those years and I was the den mother, so we found various Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and special cards he constructed as part of the scout work. Michael became an Eagle Scout during this time and there were clippings about that. Of course, Susan, the new baby and pre-schooler during those years, had many things tucked away in the box. The most precious was an autographed picture of Ken Curtis (Festus) who was Lester's second cousin. It was written to "sweet Susan."

This year's Christmas present to these four adult children will include their share of these memories. Some will amuse their own children and grandchildren, as they look at these things -- especially the grade cards that were saved! But the thing that interested me the most was a diary I kept for the year of 1967. I didn't remember ever keeping a diary, but there it was, in my own handwriting. As I read each page I could remember PTA programs I had helped put on, church meetings that I attended, projects I was preparing for the Cub Scouts, and trips back to The Wayside to check on my mother or to meet some of my siblings who were coming to visit her after the death of our father.

I also was telling about coming home just in time to go to the ball game, or to the Wesleyan Service Guild.

As I read it I wondered where I got all that energy. I think I am busy now, but compared to any of those days, I am a lady of leisure now. I also wondered what kind of parenting I was giving the four children when I was on the run so much. They seem to have turned out just fine, so maybe we measured up to some extent.

It was a good time, but I sure wouldn't want to repeat it today. But it was fun to relive the memories.