We have concluded the first full week of cleaning out my parents home in preparation for remodeling it. Sometime later I’ll share some pictures to show what we’re doing. In the meantime…
“What is that?” is the most common question the kids have asked while cleaning? So far, the answers have included the following:
What is that?
a record player
hard foam insulation
every tax return my parents have ever filed (back to 1967!)
an entire case of unopened Christmas lights
my Garbage Pail Kid collection
a slide projector
a dead mouse
a live hawk
a hand made Raggedy Ann doll
5 boxes up empty picture frames
my Yell Leader uniforms from high school
1990 World Book Encyclopedias (follow up question from the kids, “what’s an encyclopedia?”)
the watch my grandfather wore throughout WWII
a gallon jar of strike anywhere matches
another bag of unopened Christmas lights
a handmade foozle ball game
my handwriting papers from 1st grade/Kindergarten
20 years of my mom’s day planners
a 1960’s baby stroller
6 blocks of 22LR rounds
30+ thimbles
my mothers Prom dress and my father’s Prom suit
grandma’s yearbook shirt (she embroidered over each signed name)
30 years worth of Ensign magazines
Another 2000 unopened boxes of Christmas lights
a dozen 72-hour kits
enough flashlights to signal Alpha Centauri
more antiques than the Smithsonian
a Nintendo NES system
my youth sports trophies
the doll my mother was given as a newborn by a traveling salesman
the deer antlers that hung above my bed as a child
bugs… lots of bugs (Nikki supplied this answer)
two butter churn
a manual nut chopper (?)
and finally…
a wooden box that Kraft cheese used to be sold in
And The Hits Just Keep On Coming…
That kids have been fascinated by what we find. Every item has its own history lesson attached, many of them about the family member who owned it. We’ve enjoyed the stories we’d have never heard otherwise. It’s even better when both Mom and Dad have drastically different stories about an items origin (“this came all the way from Egypt!” “No, we bought it at a store in Provo”) Good time!
I wouldn’t say that we’re quite yet half way done with the house, and that doesn’t include the three car garage. So I am sure that we will find some more absolute gems… maybe some religious relics and possibly a lost city or two.
I love you Mom…