The Box Project

Family dinner

2008-11-30T23:23:49Z

Having just spent a few days sitting around the table with lots of family, this picture resonated with me. Gramma is sitting, with her parents on either side, across the table from Virginia and her grandfather. Which grandfather is this? There are no labels on the back of this one..

I saved my favorite for last

2008-11-30T23:13:47Z

You mentioned when you found the Menger M-series that you were surprised to learn that my mother had an artistic eye. Well, she was actually quite talented, and took a number of classes in college, thinking at one point she might study art seriously.

This is a little torso she sculpted in clay. Isn't it amazing? When I found it, I confess it kind of took me by surprise, I wouldn't have thought of her doing something so intimate. It is really a sensitive and accurate depiction of the female form. It is really lovely.

Peo Founders Day

2008-11-28T23:18:49Z

This is from a large stack of newspaper clippings, all bundled inside an old newspaper sack. When I was looking through photos in Lake Charles last week, I found two pristine 4x5 negatives of this picture. Isn't it interesting how things connect like that?

Anyways, I can remember you and Gramma talking about the PEO when I was in high school. You would never tell me what it was, but you would drop lots of intriguing hints. It was really annoying. :)

I preferred these to children's books

2008-11-28T23:03:00Z

My mom was a huge fan of William Steig, and I grew up surrounded by more of this type of book than regular childrens books. For those I had to go over to my grandmother's house. The books I found in my box are the kind of books I remember spending hours examining in minute detail.

The green one I remember especially, not because of the anti-technology moral of the thing but mainly because of the art! Incredibly graphic and detailed line work throughout every page. Here are just a couple to give you the idea.

Can you tell what the last one is depicting? It is the island of Manhattan, before they decided to take down all the buildings and let it go back to being nature. Fabulous.

bud

2008-11-27T23:01:56Z

I guess this would be Grandad, sometime while he was still in the Navy? The back reads:

Letters letters letters

2008-11-27T22:21:39Z

It is probably becoming very clear that my mom loved to save every scrap of memorabilia from her life. It is no surprise that she was in her heyday when letter-writing was much more commonplace than it is now. My box contains packet after packet of letters like this one. And this one...

The interesting thing is how mundane and kind of boring these letters are. I thought I would get drawn into them, and not be able to stop reading, but it was typical for them to be like a phone conversation is nowadays, what you've been up to, the trivial things that occupy your days, who stopped by, etc. But I am envious of those days. I can't remember the last time I wrote an actual letter. It is all email and phone conversations that leave little or not tangible trace. There is something so satisfying about a bundle of letters tied up with a string. Its kind of a shame that practice is passing.

Decisive moment

2008-11-26T22:57:17Z

I liked this photo a lot. Mostly because it is taken moments before chaos ensued, which I have learned in many a photography class is called a decisive moment. I wonder if Virginia knew the picture was being taken? Did Gramma know Virginia was back there?

I also like that Gramma is basically wearing my high school uniform. :)

Disneyland!

2008-11-26T20:52:03Z

I have soooo many memories of trips to the original Disneyland in California. Who knows which trip these tickets came from. My mom loved the Disneyland train, and the goofy guy running it and the funny monologue he delivered as you rode around the park. She repeated lines from it often, thought it was so funny, all the lame puns and so forth. I wouldn't be surprised if that was why she saved these, because they reminded her of that ride and those fun times.

Carlsbad Caverns

2008-11-25T22:51:14Z

This is obviously some sort of book report, written by Gramma in 1940. You can see her handwriting changed very little since grade school:

Its a fascinating document, filled with stories and pictures and brochures from her trip there. I'm guessing that wasn't supposed to be the assignment, though, because her teacher has written "Did you understand the assignment?" on the back:

My assumption is that she didn't like the assignment as given and did exactly what she wanted. Sounds like a few other people I know. :)

The Crusting Pipe

2008-11-25T20:40:49Z

Do you remember the Crusting Pipe? It was that cozy restaurant on the lower level of Covent Garden in London with the dining rooms in the arched-roof recesses below ground. We took my mom and Virginia there for dinner when they visited London and she apparently saved the menu. Man we had fun. I am still amazed that my mom was intrepid enough to pull off a trip over the pond. Talk about waaaay outside her comfort zone. But I'm so glad she did. She and I talked about that trip many many times. She loved to relive every part of it, especially the time when she and Ginny went to see Phantom of the Opera and had to run for blocks because they went to the wrong theater!

Art homework

2008-11-24T20:19:28Z

Like every other box I've poked around in, this box contains many examples of artwork by moi. I'm a bit chagrined to observe that I wasn't anywhere near the amazing art goddess that my mother (and I) thought. Ah, youth. But this one isn't actually too bad, in fact I can see hints of some future work in it, especially the pointy mountains and the elevated vista looking down on hills and houses in a village. When I get back to Dallas I'll drop in something current work that shows what I'm talking about.

This is also is evidence how my name and the spelling of it has varied through the years. At one time or another I've answered to Jenny, Jennie, Jennifer and even Bunnyfur.

warming up

2008-11-24T16:51:54Z

Today I started to get into piles and piles and PILES of old cards, letters, and newspaper clippings. This one of Aunt Virginia was from December 28, 1960.

I'm a fan from way back

2008-11-23T22:24:00Z

My mom collected fans from when she was very young, and kept a lot of them in this tooled leather box. When I found it and opened the lid, I was drawn back to when I was little, and allowed to handle the fans verrrrry gently.

I'm not sure what if anything used to be in the small leather frame, it is empty now. But the fans are still bright and colorful. This one is my favorite (for obvious reasons).

And I promise I opened them verrrrry gently.

Amazing shot

2008-11-23T14:57:55Z

Even though I don't know any of these people except from geneology charts, I thought this picture was just amazing. You just can't plan something like this! Mildred (or someone) has done a great job of labeling all of these with dates and names:

Cute greeting cards

2008-11-22T21:56:58Z

Let's say it together... awwwwwwwwwwwww! Every box I've gone through has a collection of sweet greeting cards. These must have been sent to me, and saved by my mom. She inherited this trait from my grandmother, and her mother before, who filled scrapbooks with greeting cards. I've saved some, but today's cards don't seem to be as cute or clever as they used to be.