1) Right before New Year’s I had to sweep a few piles of paper into one great big enormous box and stash it in the study to prepare for Tea and Tarot. Now, with a houseguest coming to stay in the study this weekend, I needed to go through the box - and much else! - to make that room welcoming. I’ve discovered a great deal.
2) On the uninteresting side, reams of my old bills and bank statements, much of which has been consigned to the shredder. Also decrepit typing paper from Gramma’s desk - how on earth did that make it up here? Dozens and dozens of sheets of printer-friendly Christmas stationery.
3) Lots of documentation from Mother’s family, including a slender sheaf of obituaries cut from newspapers. It’s worth noting that Mother, her father, and his father all died of “heart ailments.” Lots of sympathy cards from the death of my gramma in 1983; I tossed the ones from folks who just signed their names. The illuminated order of service from Gramma and Grampa Al’s surprise 1924 Leap Day wedding at a dance. Letters Laura and I wrote to cousin Delphine when we were very small.
4) Photographs from three centuries, from carte de visite portraits of Gramma’s older siblings Lil and Bob when they were very young children to an envelope of our 2008 family vacation in San Antonio. Lots of studio portraits: school pictures of me and my sister and all of her children, family groups from the church directory over our childhoods. Five or six slender envelopes of photos taken by Uncle Bill at Christmas, 1976 - including one of photos just of things in the house, things that are now in my house. My great-grandfather Houska wearing his fez from the Osman Shrine.
5) I truly did get rid of two full shopping bags of papers! And I’m not done yet . . .