It’s your turn, Dad!
My dad said something the other day…. that people had better be careful with their stuff, or I might find it and scrapbook about it.
“Or blog about it!” I was quick to add. And then I informed him that someday his scrapbook was going to make its way here….
And today is that day.
My dad and I have a history, I suppose. (That might be an obvious statement, but it goes deeper.) When I was growing up, my dad had a tumor growing in his brain that none of us knew about until I was in 8th Grade. It made him sick all of the time, and though he tried his best, but it was hard to be super involved as sick as he was. My mother thinks that I developed an attachment to him as an effort to make up for lost years. Whatever the reason, it’s true that I idolize my father. And I look for ways that we are alike.
I was the nerdy Middle Schooler who listened to old Carpenter’s records. And I’m pretty sure I can blame that on my dad’s love for the Carpenter’s.
He has slides and slides of Carpenter’s photos that he took when he was in college. Once he told me that he was going to have one blown up into a poster for me. I really hope he does, because I would treasure it (even though I’m not that into them any more, it would be the connection between us that would make it special).
Some things I’m recently learning about my dad… before he got sick, he was really into photography.
He took pictures of lots of silly things that really have no purpose (like I do, I suppose!). But I love looking at them and seeing what his friends from college were like.
Another surprising Dad fact that I found… he had lots of dates. He even went on a date with Miss Universe! I saw this one lady in particular, and couldn’t help but wonder about her…. But I think it would be more lovely to wonder about her than to know the actual history.
I guess some people think it’s silly to scrapbook about “selfish” things, like my favorite food or favorite t.v. show, because who will really care about those things when I’m gone? Well, I think it’s silly to think that such a thing is silly! My dad did it, and I think it is fascinating to see them!
I’ve loved looking through my dad’s things that I found, and I think I’m going to ask my mom if she has some hidden memories somewhere for me to find… It’s a blast. I highly recommend it.
Very cool! I love finding old things like that too from my parents or grandparents, it’s so interesting to know what they were like before they were “mom” or “dad” or “grandma”. That’s what keeps me scrapping, knowing that my future kids (or whoever) will look back someday and not thing “she was so selfish!”, but “wow, that’s cool, I didn’t know that about her.” I’m particularly interested in scrapping the early days of my marriage, before the kids, when it was just the 2 of us, I think that’s really important too…you’re lucky to have a scrappy family! :)
This is so wonderful and special. I am extra touched because I had/have no relationship with my father so this is just really neat to me. Ha! – I totally loved that music growing up because of my mom. I still do love ‘throw back’ music..
What an awesome treasure!
These are soooooooo great!!!
So happy to know that I’m not alone with this train of thought!!! Love going back in time through photos and papers!!! Great stuff!!!
Wow! You have hit the heritage mother lode in the last couple of weeks! Lucky you!!
I think you’re absolutely right about recording the *silly* memories about ourselves. These are the things that I love hearing the most from my grandmother and mom – and wish I knew about my dad (he died almost 13 years ago). Glad you’re having this chance to go through his photos with him to tell you about them.
oh man…i love you.. this was a really sweet post : )
treasures treasures!!!
I would give anything to have stuff like this!
my dad kept his pictures in a box in the garage (!!!) until when I was 16 it was driving me so crazy I put them in some cheap albums I got from Michaels. I’m working on getting them scanned…. but some of these I have no idea on the date, time, what was going on, anything! Asking him only results in a look of total confusion, lol.
oh this is such a lovely post Amanda:) This so is what this scrapbooking thing is about:) Thanks for sharing.
That is extremely cool. I love hearing stories about my family. You are so creative!