With the onset of September, my to-do list signals that the time is right for holiday planning – making the paper toys, that is, for Hoss gift giving assignments, our annual event.
Commemorated on this year’s ornament is my sister-in-law Madeline – retired special education teacher, avid gardener and chef, poet, and most notably for my purpose now – botanical artist.
Stunning, right? I save everything she sends.
Happy holidays for real, before we know it.
Peter received a gift from a friend recently of carefully packaged vintage newspapers where headlines highlighted historic sports events. It’s a fun keepsake for sure, and one that our babies Violet and Jack might well enjoy too, someday… but knowing my penchant for neatness, and tendency to too quickly recycle (guilty as charged), he decided to store his treasure box deep in the bottom drawer of his bureau, where, come to find out, he puts other special items to ensure their safety – like our old address book, newly discovered.
Judging from its contents this is circa 1990s, right about the time I was keying our family data into my new apple computer – moving us too quickly into the future for my husband’s comfort I guess, hence its stashing. He came clean and revealed the find, expecting me to rip out the pages and uncoil the wire binding as prep for the recycle bin, but I couldn’t – at least not yet. This was a time capsule and I needed a closer look.
Area codes were just then being assigned and required for calling. I’d forgotten that transition. I found addresses of friends and family who had moved away, or passed away, phone numbers for old employment, business contacts, and service people. We were immersed in Juliet’s world then – her classmates and their parents, summer camp, her orthodontist. My parent’s page had been erased and rewritten several times as evidence of their multiple moves since my high school graduation years before. I kept them in my hometown too long, and they were like a clock wound too tightly that needed release. And there were some names I don’t recognize at all, such as Mrs. Donahue, that honestly would freak me out a bit, except that Peter doesn’t remember them either. It’s nice, at least, to have company on that front.
I’ve lost track of many – no, most – of the people on these pages. It happens, life goes on. But remembered or not, as thank you to all the people who have participated in and enriched our lives along the way Mrs. Donahue will be the name of my next soon-to-be-published sweater design.
Let the recycling begin.
Update: Mrs. Donahue, my latest knit design, just published 9/15/2018.