This is heart-breaking sometimes. Cleaning out the house is like de-constructing Dad and Mom's lives and - by extension - saying something about our own. It's very hard. Lori found a treasure today that we didn't know existed: a small, postcard-sized book titled "Autographs of My School Friends." It was Dad's from March -June 1940, going to school in Sanders, AZ. From entries in it, I guess it was the end of the school year and he was moving somewhere. Maybe going away to high school. He'd have been about 13. This may be about the time that Mim headed West and Dad went out on his own. Dunno. A number of entries are from his basketball team mates. In fact, near the beginning is a page Dad labelled "My Sport" with a simple little drawing of a basketball. The class motto was "Be prepared, in love or war." One entry says "Dear Johnny . . . my heart is turning over and over because its just worried about you . . ." Another: "Dear Johnny, There's a pansey in the valley that I love veary much and I love you as much as I do it. Ann Leland" Betty McDonald says, " I like you little/ I like you big / I like you like / my little pig." And from Tommy Lynch: " Dear John, I Tommy a member of the Junior High team is wishing you the best of luck, for your position as forward and I as center which jumps for the ball to win a game. I'm hoping success will cheer you up." One page has signatures of Tommy H. Lynch, Pat Lynch, Sidney A. Counts, William P. Lynch, John Hurd,and Herbert Johnson. There is a little note that says, "These Boys are the basketball team."
(p.s. this is sung to the Talking Heads "Burning Down the House" . . .)
4 comments:
very moving when we find out our parents were people too
oh my . . . don't get us started!
as much emotional pain body that i carry around with me i think it is a good thing to get started with looking at our parents as people
i am a parent and I am a person and i am hoping my children can see me as the imperfect person that i am and not some stoic father figure that i had to be to
raise children
also, the naming of the basketball team and john being talked about as a forward on a middle school team and the hopes that come with being an athlete
really made john come alive, in my mind, as a kid who just wanted to play ball. Knowing John as a father figure i would have never guessed he was a kid once pounding the basketball at practice and trying to put the ball through the hoop on a regular basis. It was truly touching to me.
you are lucky to find treasures such as this memento book
think of all the places that joyce and john lived and the many moves and years in between john being 14.
the memento book must have meant a lot to them to keep it around for so long.
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