Memories

Yesterday my mother-in-law gave me a packet of old correspondence that her sister had kept over the years. I finally had time to look through it this morning. In the bag were our wedding invitation and program from our wedding 32 years ago. There were the birth announcements from all 4 of our kids along with miscellaneous pictures. There were several Christmas cards and birthday cards we had sent to Rodney's grandmother- because his aunts and grandmother lived all over the US, they would circulate letters and cards sent from other family.

I haven't seen my wedding inviation or program for probably 20 something years- if I had to describe them I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to- but now I have them back. Same thing with the birth announcements. Not sure what that says about my memory! But it makes me think about the fact that at the time, those seemed to be such all-consuming important decisions I made in choosing those, yet over the years, I've forgotten.

And also it makes me think about the importance of saving things. If Aunt Joann hadn't saved them, and my MIL, I wouldn't be having these sweet moments this morning. What will future generations have to look back on in this day of emails and everything electronic? How many letters have I written to my kids? I think of all the letters my mom wrote to me when I was in college- I still have a few. Maybe I'll start writing them letters, who knows!

A funny line from one of the Christmas cards to Grandmother Purkey- the girls were 5 and 7- Rodney wrote: "The girls are both doing well and like school. All they seem to do at home is play school. Laura likes to be the PE teacher so she can make Rachel run laps. Maybe Rachel will catch on." I'm still laughing about that! And they are both teachers today! And Rachel loves to run. Hmmm.