Yesterday we went to my mom's to have birthday cake for my son's sixteenth birthday. I know. 16!!!??? I don't really even understand how that is possible. Time is just so sneaky! But what a great kid, er young man, we have! I feel incredibly blessed.
Anyway, while we were there, my mom showed me the GREATEST thing ever.
A box of letters and postcards.
A BIG box of letters that my grandma had tucked away in her closet.
Letters and postcards with postmarks primarily from the 1930's and 40's, although there are some things earlier and some things later.
Oh my gosh, my grandma and her mother, Anna, were the smartest ladies ever. They knew these were gems to be treasured.
There are letters from my grandma to her folks and her sister while she was away at college. There are postcards from my grandpa to my grandma while he was in the service. And then there are postcards sent home from my grandpa and grandma shortly after they married. Beautiful, old postcards!!! There was also a stack of Christmas cards they saved from a year or two of Christmases.
I read through some of the letters from my grandma and they made me laugh - to hear her as a young adult, talking about college, about clothes, about her classes, about being sick and eating lots of fruits and vegetables to "combat the germs," about driving to Portland with some friends and "please don't worry about me, this is what kids do here and we'll be fine."
Love, love, LOVE!!! The thing that struck me was how often the letters would start out asking them to please write or thanking them for the last letter. You immediately get a sense of how important letters were back then.
My grandma and I used to write letters to each other. I didn't save them, and it is one of my biggest regrets.
This fall or winter, I may borrow the box so I can spend a whole day going through it, going back in time and taking it all in.
What a gift. Other people wanted the valuable stuff, the stuff they could sell. I wanted the recipe cards in my grandma's hand-writing, the buttons I used to play with while she sewed, and the letters written with love.
What a wonderful discovery! Enjoy your treasures.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your amazing advice during WriteOnCon.
:)
So cool. One of my treasures is hand-written recipe card of my grandmother's banana bread recipe that she wrote out for my bridal shower. It's all stained now (mostly w/ banana), but her familiar handwriting still smiles at me when I make the bread.
ReplyDeleteI echo Jamie in thanking you for your advice during writeoncon. Thank you for taking the time!
How cool! I love looking at the letters, notes, and cards that I've received from my grandparents. And that is why I've saved so many of my own.
ReplyDeleteThat is the most wonderful keepsakes of all! I have my grandmother's recipes, which she kept in a tin picnic basket. The recipes include one for apple butter cooked in a large kettle over an open fire.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy pouring over them. (One thing I did was have them color photocopied at Staples on card stock. They look so close to the originals and make great family gifts or to hang like art in the kitchen. Perfect for scrapbooking as well!)