The "Long Forgotten Treasures" Story

It was an ordinary day. Trying to eliminate some of my mother's collection of clothing and antiques that occupy my basement. I have had flooding in the basement twice since we have lived here and would prefer to minimize the amount of material that I have to store in the basement. When mom moved from assisted living, where she had her own room with big closet as well as a storage locker in another area of the building, to personal care, where she has 6 drawers and a closet one foot wide, I had to find space in my house to store her belongings. I have 4 suitcases as well as about a dozen and a half big boxes filled with her belongings as well as a long closet in our spare bedroom filled with clothes. In the past three years mom has lost about 40 pounds and most of the clothes I have stored as well most of the clothes in the suitcases no longer fits. We have been purchasing new clothes as the seasons call for them. Therefore, we find it is helpful to sort out what will not be used and donate it to Goodwill. As far as the large boxes go, I have been bringing one or two boxes a night upstairs with me and Carol and I sit and go through the boxes to see what can be salvage and what can be discarded. Have found some really neat stuff! A 1922 calendar with drawings of some of the neatest cars from that year such as the Overland, Essex, Earl andStar. Opened it to August and there was mom's birth date circled with "Dot's birthday" next to it. Also found a box with Christmas decorations in it. A laminated wooden nativity scene with accompanied wooden camels held together with small chain were in the box as well as a few nutcrackers. A small ceramic Christmas Tree that played a "Oh, Christmas Tree" when you pushed a button on one of the stars on the tree. Ornaments, some hand-made, were in a small bag. But, the item that interested me the most was the bag of wax choirboys and candles that my dad and I received in the 1950s from Mr. McConnell, our church organist and choirmaster. I was a young boy in the boy's choir and dad was the bass soloist in the men's choir and every Christmas Mr. McConnell would give us wax choirboys filled with candy or a was choirboy candle. I knew mom and dad still had them, but could never find them ..... until now. Wow, what a treat, and it's not even Christmas. Also found the red glass roosterthat my Nannan (my father's mother) used to have sitting on her kitchen table filled with jelly. What a treat that was to find that. More treasures will come as i continue to go through the boxes. Now, the down side of the "finds". We found a half-used Fleet enema bottle, a bag that Moravian Manor had marked as weapons that mom must have been keeping for who knows what that includeda letter opener and a scissors, and a sock filled with coins and tied which could be used to hit someone with. Found an address book listing all mom and dad's friends and relatives and changes in addresses as they occurred as well as being crossed off and marked "deceased" as they died. But the box that I opened and immediately found old towels with mice turds all over them rally drew my attention. I checked to see if there were any holes in the bottom of the box and found none. As I removed items and put them in the trash, I kept thinking about what I was going to find at the bottom. Then came the red and green foil wrappers that were on Hershey Kisses that had been eaten. Now, I raised all sorts of animals when I was younger including mice and rats,but I always knew what I could expect. I was getting more excited as I removed a metal can filled with coughdrops, a box of lightbulbs and a few bars of soap. Then at the bottom were flattened candy wrappers. I just knew what I was going to find when I lifted them out of the box. But ..... nothing. Whatever was in the box had left! Probably one of the 4 mice I caught in the area above my ceiling tiles right after the holidays this past December. The treasures I have found are part of my family's history, but the excitement and intrigue of finding them is priceless. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.