Gene, you always strike a chord with me. Maybe it's the era?

Interesting to see the "Market Basket" card and logo--we shopped M.B. for years in the late forties and the fifties, maybe beyond. As for the drill bit, your dad kept it segregated and clearly identified because it was matched to a small-sized "Easy-Out", a sort of reverse bit that would dig into the head of a screw and bring it out if all else failed.

Clyde McConnell
Calgary

i think i've read all your articles posted here over the years, and i've always wanted to tell you how much i appreciate them. (speaking of which, i have to impko stuff i feel i should send you...) anyway, your articles are the main reason i keep subscribed to creativepro -- they are inspiring on so many fronts. please keep up the good work. this article was awesome, by the way -- so affecting... glimpses from a life. i especially like the shot of your dad above the "card trick" stuff. and what in the world was "the lincoln liar's club"??

I like the way you dig up funny/interesting things from the past, but this went way beyond that. This exposes family and personal stuff, the lows and the highs, which took some courage to tell the public. Thanks, Gene.

My first reaction was a bark of rueful laughter at a mere envelope of mementos. Let me explain.
When Mom died last month (at 102), my sister and I were faced with sorting out the detritus of her 60 years in a small house. This stuff included slides and other photos, most of which were taken by Daddy, who died in 1992. I didn't count them, but there must have been 50 file folders stuffed with sheets of slides, file drawers and boxes full as well. Duplicates. Triplicates. Pictures of pictures. Pictures of pictures of pictures.
And printed photos, only a relative few of which are studio shots. Snapshots of my mother's teen years on a Minnesota farm, and Dad's family who lived all over the U.S. Snapshots of both Daddy and Mom in the TB hospital where they met. Snapshots of the CCC camp where Dad lied about his marital status just to get a job in the depression. Snapshots of their lives in a lookout on the Mendocino Forest, where they were joined by Yours Truly.
My dad must have documented every square inch of Willows, Calif. over several decades, and was much in demand for slide shows for Lions, church, historical groups in our little town and beyond.
My folks (who NEVER THREW A THING AWAY) also had bills, documents and memorabilia stuffed in every corner, not necessarily sorted. In some ways I envy your condensed version of my experience. Yet there is something exciting about dig, dig, digging through duplicated photos, chipped dishes, broken jewelry ... to find GOLD! Nothing of monetary value. Just pictures of the only vacation our family ever took (Daddy being a firefighter on call all summer long). An old prom dress. The little cups we ate shrimp cocktail out of at Thanksgiving....
Thanks to you Gene, for sharing your GOLD!

Gene,

This was a fine article; very moving and sentimental. Thank you.

By the way, cobalt drill bits are meant for extended use with very hard materials (e.g. stainless steel, titanium, etc.). So, your Dad may have had some specialized usage for it (e.g. to drill out stripped screws or bolts... his use of the term "easy-out" reminds me of modern "EZ-Out" and similarly named tool sets used to (you guessed it) remove stripped screws).

As for why it was stashed away, he may have wanted to prevent others from using it to drill softer materials, such as wood or aluminum, which would have dulled it. A prescient and practical move, indeed.

Thank you for sharing! Sounds like your Dad had and hit some rough times there! I have quite the collection myself, funny how the small things say so much. Saved every gift tag on every present I got that had a special message on it, every soccer club membership card, army card, work id cards, stamp booklet my grandad left, two bullet casings a larger one hit by a smaller 22 from 30 yards away. It would be neat to do an illustrated book of things like this that people left I think its really interesting! Thanks again for sharing love your articles.

I’ve been reading articles here for the past year and have never commented- although I have printed several articles for my employees to read.

I felt compelled to comment on this article because it was not only wonderfully personal and nostalgic- but because it hits so close to home. My Father passed in 2006 and we are still discovering small treasures like what you’ve shared with us today. The silly things he kept for sentimental value and the interesting things that we never knew about him.

I discovered my Dad spoke 5 different languages and travelled all over the world while he was in special intelligence for the US Air Force. Of course, all that was top secret while he was alive. My greatest treasures have been the many photos of him, from the time he was 18 through his retirement, taken in many different countries.

I’ll share a special photo of mine. Special because I have this image of him when he was 20 years old and another photo that is pretty much identical to this when he was 60ish. He held himself exactly the same way… with the same sly look on his face.

Click Here.

What a lovely, sentimental post today. Thank you.

Thanks Gene for sharing a very moving piece of your life. What such an insight into one of your parents. No matter how good or bad our relationships with our parents is or was, it say's so much about who we are.
Thanks once again for that special open moment at the start of my day.
Jim Webster.
If you're not infront of the camera, you're out of the picture.

I love it when you get "gifts from the past." What an absolute treasure! I got a kick out of seeing a lot of the old printed stuff, and loved the hand-drawn map.

Pat