A Life Well Lived.
April 13th, 2008Seems like it was just the other day that I found myself in my parent’s house, choked up and misty eyed as I had to clean and organize their belongings getting it ready to sell. Childhood memories & emotions came flooding back as I came across a lifetime’s collection of possessions from around the world and across the last 150 years.
An orange enameled cast iron casserole dish that mom cooked in for the last 50 years. How many tuna casseroles with potato chips crushed on top were served in that? The ceramic humidor from Germany that we used as a cookie jar and that mom could hear being opened from anywhere in the house. Dad’s slide rule that he used in his engineering and Army life. At one point in his life he was a Nuclear Procurement Officer which means he figured out which bomb to use for a desired effect. Thank God he never used his knowledge. The old slide projector that we used to watch family slide shows in. I still remember an old girlfriend laughing at those. When I asked her what was so funny, she said, “You have the same hair style now as you did throughout your life. You’ve never changed it!”
A house full of the minutia of a life well lived.
I came across several boxes of photos and slides that my dad had taken. It’s a stroke of good fortune that our family took so many photos of relatives & friends (some of which go back to the 1800s). That so many survived is a miracle. I can see why insurance companies don’t cover family photos; how could you place a value on them?
They impart a tactile sense of history as they show real people living through important historical times. There’s a photo of two women with a WWI soldier. He was a family member who went AWOL when the troop train he was on passed close to his hometown. The women are my grandma and her sister. They had a good visit and he went back to his unit only to be killed in the war.
The 3 bakers laying on the floor, the muscle man and the guy behind the bar pouring a beer are my great grandfather who was run out of Oklahoma by the klan for being German, Catholic (even though he never practiced) and for making money during WWI. The grand pooh-ba of the local klan came by his bakery as he was closing up and moving on to offer his sympathies at seeing him leave. Grandpa stared holes through him and said, “You don’t have your sheets on now but you don’t fool me. I know exactly who you are.” and then he proceeded to cuss him out in German. “Sie sind ein Scheißekopf, Mutterbumser, Esel Bohrung!” Go grandpa, go.
The Korean War photos show that despite what my dad said was the absolute worst war he has ever been in, actually had moments of calmness and sanity. You’d never know by looking that dad came close to dying several times. He said it was the coldest place he’s ever been. He often slept under trucks to stay warm from the engine’s heat. His unit was penned in on 3 sides by the Chinese army. With their backs to the sea they managed to escape at the last second by ship.
They are a wonderful reminder that no matter what the circumstances people find themselves in (i.e. the great Depression, war, etc.) you can be relatively happy and enjoy your life. I think one of the hallmarks of happiness is having lowered expectations. Life is made up of small things. Enjoy the minutia.
When I look at photos of family during war, the Great Depression, etc. their lives went on and they enjoyed it to the best of their ability. They weren’t materially rich but they were wealthy beyond measure in what really mattered. That’s a good example to follow.
Enjoy.
Korean War
April 14th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Thanks for sharing those photos. I enjoy stuff like that. When my Dad passed away, going through his stuff was so much fun for me. Some of it was painful as my Dad suffered from depression and how he lived just broke my heart, but the fun part was getting to know him better. I have a really small place, so I could only take so many family moments with me. We ended up selling his house and the stuff inside really quickly after his passing making the wading through his personal belongings kinds of rushed. But I cracked up at some of the stuff my Dad saved, like the deed to his first house or letters from his parents or bits of soap. We also found some really cool stuff like Russian language books from when my Dad was a spy when he was in the Army. They were way up on a top shelf in a corner.
We were so rushed that I somehow misplaced the box of family photos. So I discovered a month after the house had sold that I had grabbed the wrong box. I called the broker who bought the house and he said that a lot of the “useless” personal stuff went to the landfill. I was broken hearted. So I have family pictures up to when I was about three years old and the rest…..well the box might be dug up in a couple hundred years from now and it might turn out to be a great archelogical find.
April 14th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Lisa,
Augh! ‘useless’ Personal stuff?! That’s so sad. May the broker that did that have his photos thrown out!
When was your dad in the Army. My dad was in from 42 to 68 and the last year he was head of intelligence for western europe, so he dealt with spy issues. Wouldn’t that be something if they knew each other?
April 15th, 2008 at 8:51 am
My Dad was in the army from 52 to 54 I think. He lived in Virginia, but did his basic training at Ford Ord in California. He met my Mom in Carmel and they knew each other a month, got married and then my Dad was shipped off to Germany. While he was in Germany my brother was born (1953) and when he returned (had to be 1954), I was born in 1955. Where exactly did your Dad serve?
April 15th, 2008 at 10:16 am
We were stationed in Wiesbaden Germany from 54 thru 57 (when I was born) and we went back to Heidelberg in 67-68. That’s when he was head of intelligence.
I went to school on base and one day they had to take us home by a back route because of thousands of Viet Nam war protesters blocking the front of the base. Interesting times.