Glimpse into the Past

On Tuesday night I went to my parents' house to celebrate my dad's birthday. On the kitchen table was an ancient-looking book, and as I have an unexplainable affinity for ancient-looking books, naturally I picked it up and took it to the couch to browse it's pages. It was a jewelry catalog, leather bound, from 1924. Inside my great-grandfather had pasted newspaper articles about baseball. Apparently he was really a fan of the sport. He began, based on the article dates, in 1930 and pasted into this book until about 1935. There were articles on Lou Gerig and Babe Ruth, as well as the then-winning Detroit Lions (his team). I felt his presence as I flipped pages of neatly aligned, yellowing articles. It was as though I could feel the concentration and love that had gone into this scrapbook of sorts, and that I held a treasure in my hands.

Halfway through the book there was an article not pasted on the pages, clipped carefully and folded in half. When I unfolded it I found my grandparents' wedding announcement. Her father must have clipped this later and stored it in his scrapbook. The picture is hard to make out, but one I've seen before. They look radiant, and elated. It does not speak of the years of violence and misery that would follow. The article describes her dress, her bouquet of white roses and gladioli centered on a qhite orchid, her bridesmaids and their dresses and flowers, the guests, and where they were to live, even what the mothers of the bride and groom wore. The attention to detail was touching. I suppose it conveyed a sense that people really cared. I felt as though I had stepped through some mystical door into the chapel with a nervous young couple, their parents, friends, and family. I felt the urgency to save this piece of history, record it. I am working on that. I've bought a wonderful book which will prompt my grandmother to tell her story, and I want to write it all down. But I also plan on treasuring her handwriting.

Reach out today. Ask your mother/grandmother/uncle, anyone, a question about what life was like for them in one certain moment. Remember it.

Never forget.