“Are you meddling?” asked Mike, as he came upon me once again pouring over the contents of Ina’s old trunk. “Yes,” I said, “and there’s no one left to care.” It’s so pleasant to spend time there in that “east dormer” (over the front porch) – just a wide place at the end of the hall where the old trunk sits along with a bookcase and Grandma’s old overstuffed rocking chair.
Grandma Ina’s old trunk held her important treasures – souvenirs of her childhood and youth, her high school diploma, old letters, photos and portraits, etc. Sometimes on a rainy day, she would let her children look through it as long as they were careful and quiet. My dad never spoke of it much but eventually he moved it from this house to the attic of the Orofino house where we found it after his passing. When we cleaned out the Orofino house, I became the keeper of the trunk at my house in Lewiston. Finally it came full circle back to the homestead at Gilbert.
For a long time I tried to keep everything just as Grandma Ina had had it – these photos in this box, these letters here, more photos over here. I was losing my mind trying to keep everything separated and knew the trunk as well as all her other little stashes (and my dad’s) would now have to be combined into one or I would never be able to make sense of it. “It’s all mine now,” I would tell myself, not with any sense of selfishness (I hope) but because it all had to be organized. For example, today I found another set of photos pertaini
ng to the Yellowstone tour of 1926 – duplicates of those I’m already working with but useful because more carefully identified.
It started raining Saturday night and we’ve had intermittent showers since then. In fact, it poured about 6:00 this morning, so the day’s activities started slowly for us. It was 45 when we got up and in the low 60s mid-afternoon. Mike finally mowed the lawn. I finally finished the laundry. I baked cookies to put some heat in the house – at least, that’s what I said. Yesterday was also chilly and I sat at my sewing machine putting a decorative hem on a receiving blanket for New Baby Warnock as I watched the storms move in and out over Little Canyon. I find it fascinating to watch the clouds. I took a number of photos to share before I realized you are probably enjoying your own cloud formations. KW
Grandma Ina’s old trunk held her important treasures – souvenirs of her childhood and youth, her high school diploma, old letters, photos and portraits, etc. Sometimes on a rainy day, she would let her children look through it as long as they were careful and quiet. My dad never spoke of it much but eventually he moved it from this house to the attic of the Orofino house where we found it after his passing. When we cleaned out the Orofino house, I became the keeper of the trunk at my house in Lewiston. Finally it came full circle back to the homestead at Gilbert.
For a long time I tried to keep everything just as Grandma Ina had had it – these photos in this box, these letters here, more photos over here. I was losing my mind trying to keep everything separated and knew the trunk as well as all her other little stashes (and my dad’s) would now have to be combined into one or I would never be able to make sense of it. “It’s all mine now,” I would tell myself, not with any sense of selfishness (I hope) but because it all had to be organized. For example, today I found another set of photos pertaini
ng to the Yellowstone tour of 1926 – duplicates of those I’m already working with but useful because more carefully identified.It started raining Saturday night and we’ve had intermittent showers since then. In fact, it poured about 6:00 this morning, so the day’s activities started slowly for us. It was 45 when we got up and in the low 60s mid-afternoon. Mike finally mowed the lawn. I finally finished the laundry. I baked cookies to put some heat in the house – at least, that’s what I said. Yesterday was also chilly and I sat at my sewing machine putting a decorative hem on a receiving blanket for New Baby Warnock as I watched the storms move in and out over Little Canyon. I find it fascinating to watch the clouds. I took a number of photos to share before I realized you are probably enjoying your own cloud formations. KW
2 comments:
Do you remember the old Viewmaster and the deck of slides from Yellowstone? They must have really liked Yellowstone. Do you still have it?
Over here we're at the point of enjoying the sun more than the cloud formations. You've taken some neat photos, though. Everything is SO green!
Yes, we still have Grandma Ina's old Viewmaster and cards. I think there were two here at the farm as I recall. Before Disneyland, cruises, and airplane trips to foreign places, Yellowstone was the place to go. We don't hear so much about it now, not even as much as when I was a child. I took a lot of pictures of clouds that didn't really turn out. I could fix them, but when I did, the effect of the clouds was gone. That's probably when you need a good old-fashioned camera. It IS green here now. KW
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