I'm having a very interesting afternoon so in my delirium I thought I might share it with you. I slept two hours last night....reason unknown....I got home at a reasonable hour...2 but could not sleep at all.
This part however is not important. What is important is my task for the day. I am beginning to clean out my families house. From top to bottom it needs to be empty in about two to three weeks or so. Being a freak I'm going top to bottom....four floors including the attic and basement. My family has lived here for three generations, and I am the last one. I don't want to live here in Long Island...um...who would....so here I am cleaning it out putting the good stuff in a trailer and driving my sorry ass back to Portland.
ATTIC:
the first box I come to has stacks of old letters. Love letters from my grandmother to my grandfather during WWII. My grandmother had a beautiful voice (on paper) in real life too but she died when I was 14 so I don't remember it that well. In the two and a half months my GP was in the army getting ready to die in Germany or Italy or wherever it was they sent those poor boys (he never actually went, allergies) my GM must have written over 75 of the most beautiful letters I have ever in my entire life read. I cried. I will cry more, it was amazing. A peak into the lives of the blood you are made of that most don't ever get. My uncle took them but before I leave I will have some to take back with me and I will find one that I am in love with and type it in here. I promise.
The next box, letters from GP to GM...not as fun...but cute as hell. I also found my GP's records....music from the Spanish Revolution, Communist Russia and China, little did I know my GP was an Anarchocommunist....guess it runs in the family eh?
Trunk: Life Magazine...title.... MAN WALKS ON MOON....perfect condition.
My great grandfathers immigration pictures. Pictures of family from the 1850's. I had no idea any of this stuff was here....i'm flipping out, its insane....COMPLETELY INSANE....the last 150 years of my family history are flashing before my eyes and the people that can actually explain some of it died while it was all packed away in crates....so sad. I'll leave you with this for now.
Want ad, Circa 1935:
Design For Secretary:
Specifications: Salary, alas, $15 a week to start, no alternative.
AGE: 20 to 30.
Status: un or ex-married
Looks: pleasing but not aggressively beautiful.
Education: college or equivalent through self education.
Requirements: good shorthand, neat, intelligent typing, air-tight filling, cheerfulness, neatness, system (not exactly the same thing), BREEDING (she will know what that means), enthusiasm. This paragon must receive visitors, answer phone, work in a small office with inadequate equipment, with much work to do, interesting, lively, stimulating work; in other words, advertising with nothing ahead of her but a splendid future. Any Gamblers? K 450 Times.
I shit you not. in the NY TIMES...a long long time ago....
This part however is not important. What is important is my task for the day. I am beginning to clean out my families house. From top to bottom it needs to be empty in about two to three weeks or so. Being a freak I'm going top to bottom....four floors including the attic and basement. My family has lived here for three generations, and I am the last one. I don't want to live here in Long Island...um...who would....so here I am cleaning it out putting the good stuff in a trailer and driving my sorry ass back to Portland.
ATTIC:
the first box I come to has stacks of old letters. Love letters from my grandmother to my grandfather during WWII. My grandmother had a beautiful voice (on paper) in real life too but she died when I was 14 so I don't remember it that well. In the two and a half months my GP was in the army getting ready to die in Germany or Italy or wherever it was they sent those poor boys (he never actually went, allergies) my GM must have written over 75 of the most beautiful letters I have ever in my entire life read. I cried. I will cry more, it was amazing. A peak into the lives of the blood you are made of that most don't ever get. My uncle took them but before I leave I will have some to take back with me and I will find one that I am in love with and type it in here. I promise.
The next box, letters from GP to GM...not as fun...but cute as hell. I also found my GP's records....music from the Spanish Revolution, Communist Russia and China, little did I know my GP was an Anarchocommunist....guess it runs in the family eh?
Trunk: Life Magazine...title.... MAN WALKS ON MOON....perfect condition.
My great grandfathers immigration pictures. Pictures of family from the 1850's. I had no idea any of this stuff was here....i'm flipping out, its insane....COMPLETELY INSANE....the last 150 years of my family history are flashing before my eyes and the people that can actually explain some of it died while it was all packed away in crates....so sad. I'll leave you with this for now.
Want ad, Circa 1935:
Design For Secretary:
Specifications: Salary, alas, $15 a week to start, no alternative.
AGE: 20 to 30.
Status: un or ex-married
Looks: pleasing but not aggressively beautiful.
Education: college or equivalent through self education.
Requirements: good shorthand, neat, intelligent typing, air-tight filling, cheerfulness, neatness, system (not exactly the same thing), BREEDING (she will know what that means), enthusiasm. This paragon must receive visitors, answer phone, work in a small office with inadequate equipment, with much work to do, interesting, lively, stimulating work; in other words, advertising with nothing ahead of her but a splendid future. Any Gamblers? K 450 Times.
I shit you not. in the NY TIMES...a long long time ago....
VIEW 9 of 9 COMMENTS
you're a trip.
please send the pics from friday, please.
will send email.
good luck with your trailer hitching.
woah. you found all that stuff in your family's attic? holy moly. amazing! when we went through my grandparents attic we found a collection of empty yogurt cartons spanning half a century. yeah. my gramps was OCD and saved EVERYTHING> i didnt find any fun treasures.