Travel Memories
I'm having a difficult time writing my weekly blog, so I thought I would post a couple pictures of my current hobby project. Next to writing, the love of my life is traveling. And I keep souvenirs from pretty much everywhere I go.
From matchbooks, to menus, to brochures, to tourist booklets . . . I had been keeping them in a giant Tupperware container. Not good organization. So I bought a two-drawer file cabinet at Ann Arbor's "Recycle-Re-use" facility for $10 and am finally getting everything organized.
Of course, as I'm sorting, I'm also reading and remembering. I created a Mt. Washington newsletter to fire up the boys for our climb up the tallest mountain in the White Mountains. The boys ended up not only summiting, but making their way down as well. I made it up but took the shuttle down.
On a map of Isle Royale, I re-traced our hiking route the time we did a father-son backpacking trek with my boys, my brother and his son, and my dad. The only time we got lost was when we followed a group of Boy Scouts who ended up going the wrong way off trail. We discovered this before we followed them too far into the underbrush, and turned ourselves around to find the right trail. Never did find out what happened with the scouts.
Not sure yet what is going to happen this summer. We're going to Silver Lake by Lake Michigan in July, a tradition going back over a dozen years. Wendy would like to journey to California once school is back in session. She's never been. I haven't been there since I was a kid with my parents (for a long time, they had a leftover "E" ticket for Disneyland).
I tried to convince my boys this week that when I pass on, all my own travel souvenirs might be worth keeping, the memories and all. They didn't sound too enthusiastic. Most likely the file cabinet will go back to Ann Arbor Re-Cycle and Re-Use and the contents there discarded after a cursory glance. Oh, well. That's probably the way it goes with most things after we're gone. Memories like these don't transfer well to future generations.
posted by Big Dave T @ 6:14 PM
9 Comments:
At Ann Arbor Re-cycle and Re-use, they had better not throw all that away!! Recycle it! Sheesh!
I keep mementos like that, too, but when I moved into this house, half the size of my previous one, I had to do some serious culling. I still have them, but far fewer than before. Even so, my kids just shake their heads. I don't care. It'll be my payback for the stuff they left behind when they moved out!
DAVE.. I, for one, think that is a great legacy for all your family and grandkids. Places and thoughts about those adventures should be treasured not thrown out like trash. You could leave the whole thing to some family archive or some collector who loves to travel. I am sure the knowlege you have
gathered would be most useful to someone.
: )
Dave, we also collect all the stuff we can on our trips. Many a waiter from those cruises snuck us copies of all the dinner menus-which we've encased w/ the pictures, room keys and daily newspapers to the photo albums.
travel is a wonderful thing isn't it?
And when you finally bring Wendy to CA-make sure you drop me an e-mail and Steve and I will have you over for one of our BBQs!
Great collection. You can bring up a lot of memories looking at all those leaflets and souvenirs.
Great idea, Dave. My summer project is to take all my old cassette tapes and convert them to a mp3 format. I'll then put them on my iPod.
My kids feel the same way about the things I collect. I suspect my goodies will be sitting in a box in one of my kid's garage until the next generation finds them
LYNILU--I know what you mean. Now that our son has a home of his own, we keep promising to bring his old stuff by. He's starting to realize now how much junk in our house is his.
CAROLDEE--I think somebody might find them useful. I told the boys that my scrapbooks alone might command a hefty sum on E-Bay. I even have a ticket stub from Auto-World. You probably don't even remember that place it's been closed so long.
CARINE--Hmmmm, wondering what they BBQ in California. I thought barbecueing was a MidWest/Southern tradition. Hopefully you don't BBQ sushi or something like that.
CASSIE--I thought I put in a variety too after looking at the picture. I just threw stuff together in a hurry but it represents a lot of different regions when you think about it.
FRED--Man, you're light years ahead of me in technology. I didn't even know you could put cassettes on MP.3. I was proud of myself this week when I got an account on YouTube.
DAVE-no, no sushi (LOL)but I do like to grill my veggies! We do "grill"-totally different and a lot faster.
But still really good.
You probably should just throw all that stuff out now because once it comes to our house it will be trashed anyway.
CARINE--I can handle grilled veggies. Mmmmmm, kebobs are great.
ANONYMOUS--I guess I'll have to leave my fortune to someone who will appreciate it.
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