Unpacking The Past

I worked all day again here at the house unpacking all that I had repacked in December when I thought I would sell the house and move everything back to New Orleans. Since I took the house in Portland off the market and plan to stay here at least during next school year, I am spending these weeks in Portland again unpacking. It's not fun.

But today I unloaded some boxes with books and knick knaks my mom had (I took the bookcase and contents after my parents died). It provided me with a flashback to both my youth and that of my ancestors, for within the books were some interesting flashes of family history.

I discovered one of my grandfather's medical books (he was a physician) and wondered why it was in that antique bookcase that I can remember sticking my foot through (It has a glass fronting) when wrestling my brother so long ago. Perhaps someone kept it to remember him after he died. Oh.... I still have the physical scar from that gaping cut on the top of my foot.

And all my high school yearbooks are there. To see myself, yes, un bearded then, in my prime, young, athletic and innocent was euphoric. Now I can be even more delusional! Sadly, I also saw the photos of five of my high school classmates who have died (one, the "pretty and smart" girl of the class was murdered by her ex husband one night a few years ago after he burst on the scene of she and a lover dallying in bed) from everything to an auto accident at 18 years of age to aids just a few years ago.My mother kept her college yearbooks (LSU) from the 30's. Just thumbing through them shows the calmer times of that generation.

It looks serious and comforting, but I am sure college in the 1930's was probably much like it is today. We idealize the past because we can never fully understand it or see the blemishes as clearly as what we view of our lives today.

There also was a very old book of an organization my grandmother belonged to, a kind of Kiwanis group of the type that was popular before World War II. In it was a letter scolding her for not paying her 1941 dues for the year and threatening to kick her out if she didn't pay soon.
My mother loved New Orleans dearly and collected much about the city.

So it figures that I found many books about the city, including one of photographs of the last century of New Orleans life. There was also a book of poetry written by Jack Grapes (a writer, poet, and actor of some prominence today). My mother was his English teacher in high school and in the forward of the book of poems, A Savage Place, that he composed in 1965 and that he sent to my mom. He wrote in the forward of the book to her, "Thank you for turning me loose to explore the tunnel of my imagination. When it is darkest we see the stars," Jack.

Seeing that made me think all day of my mom and dad, of how much we all loved each other. It was a fortuitous find. And there were other revelatory finds, including my navy boot camp yearbook! Haha Yes, each company that graduated had a yearbook made for it and presented at graduation. I wonder if the navy was as glad to get rid of me as I was to exit it.

Furniture and contents like the old antique bookcase and it's almost forgotten memories are dear to me. They tie me to the best people, places and things of my youth and the youth of loved ones long gone. I worked hard unpacking today, but the rewarding finds in that book case gave me a spiritual renewal I treasure.