Extraordinary Stories From An Ordinary Guy: The "Memories From The Past" Story

It was an ordinary day. Just finished going through another box of "old stuff" that my wife, Carol, and I had stored away years ago when we moved into our "beach house" in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We had stored box after box of "old stuff" in closets as well as a large storage space about our garage after moving about two dozen or so years ago. We have finally decided that the place is way to big for us anymore since our children all moved out ages ago and the acre of lawn is getting to much for me to handle anymore. We have picked out a retirement community a few miles away and now have to wait for an opening before we can make our move. Could be a few months or a few years, so in the meantime we have decided that we need to get rid of anything that we no longer need. That would include chests filled with old clothes as well as hundreds of old mementos that no longer have the same meaning to us as they once did. While searching through a few cardboard boxes one day last week I came upon a few scrap books that were filled with memory after memory. Knew I just couldn't throw all the memories out and never get to see them again, so I scanned a few hundred of them and put them in a folder on my computer's desktop. As I sat down this morning to type another story on my blog, I decided to open the folder one more time just to see what I had saved this past week. There was a scan of an arm patch I had won years ago for bowling a 500 triple as well as a chest patch that covered the front of my winter jacket which I had won playing baseball when I was in Jr. High School years ago. The patch had been sewn on a heavy winter jacket that I received from the Young Republican Club in Lancaster after being part of a Jr. Midget Baseball team when I was 13 years old. It was a team that consisted of baseball players from the city of Lancaster who traveled to tournaments many weekends as well as being in a Jr. Midget League in Lancaster. There were about 15 of us who not only won the local league but were good enough to become State Champs in 1957. Another 8X10 black and white photograph featured the Manheim Township High School Rifle Team that I had coached for 5 years. The fourth year the team traveled to State College, Pennsylvania where we competed in the 1968-1969 State Championship. We won the tournament and all received trophies. While going through photo scrap books I came upon one that Carol had made that was filled with photographs of the wedding trip we took to Niagara Falls the evening after we were married in 1967. One final photo scrapbook had photographs from when Carol was a child. Hard to believe we were both children at one time! I have included a few of the scans to give you an idea as to what I saved so as to remember what our life was like growing up. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did when I was scanning them. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Click on images to enlarge them.