However, when I reached eighth grade, or, more importantly,when Sid reached seventh grade, this all changed. He went to CBA, and wasn't able to come to Minie's after school anymore. While still fun, going to my grandmother's did lose a bit of excitement. Without Sid, making pinball machines out of pipe cleaners and foam trays lost a lot of appeal, while our club dwindled away into moth-eaten oblivion. There was still my sister, but it simply wasn't the same.
What was I to do? One day, while sitting on the spiral steps in the kitchen, I noticed a bookshelf in the downstairs room. On it was an assortment of old books and tchotchke. Examining it closer, I discovered a conch shell, a Poor Richard's Almanack from 1910, a very old Bible with a map of Jerusalem in the back, and a large amount of old novels in French. I realized that, although I knew my grandmother's house by heart, there was a bunch of old treasures just waiting to be rediscovered. So, the next week, with permission, I started a massive excavation of Minie's closets in the downstairs room. I tackled cleaning out a pile of paint jars, found a massive box of sidewalk chalk, and organized and put in photo albums two huge cardboard boxes full of pictures from my grandfather's sabbatical in France in 1973-74. I found a coffee can of beautiful Lake George crystals, a quick silver thermometer, an old-fashioned hair curler, and a large amount of my grandfather's golf trophies. After a few weeks, I had organized the entire closet and thrown away (at my grandmother's behest) box after box of unneeded and decrepit objects. Sitting back and surveying my handiwork, I was unsatisfied. Because now I had nothing to do.
So I went after another closet. This one was upstairs in the dining room, and was mostly full of piles of photo albums. I took them all out and looked through them all, sometimes with supplemental stories from Minie as she walked by. I put loose photos into empty albums, and fixed those photos which were falling out. Then, setting all these aside, I pulled out a large Xerox box full of assorted objects. Then, lo and behold, I found a set of journals.
The first one I opened stated that it belonged to a Wilson M. Page. On further examination, I realized that it was from 1857!! Not only that, but this man was my distant relative - some many times great grandfather. I was ecstatic. After all of my treasure hunting, I had finally found something - some real treasure!
And that brings us to where we are today. I am attempting to transcribe these journals into the virtual world - which, as you see, means this blog - for my immediate, extended, and non family to enjoy, and possibly correct my knowledge of 19th century English.
I only have about 14 days from the journal on my computer currently. Dave, if you read this anytime soon, I need transportation so I can transcribe some more. I will start posting on January 1st, and this will continue throughout the year.
As if I need more projects in my life. Dave, I need your help with this. Try to find out how I can make you a co-blogger.
