Memories in a Box

    This week has been a hard week as far as health goes, Janit was very sick Monday and Tuesday and she passed it on to me on Wednesday. We have had a tough week getting over whatever this has been.     Anyway, it gave me time to start looking for something to get into in my house that didn't take a lot of physical effort, mental thought, or a commitment to finish anytime soon. So I started to dig through boxes that we have not opened in YEARS.
    In the first box was 1000's of memories that have been packed away for years. There were 1000's of pictures of Jan and her family, and 1000's of me and mine. We spent three days looking through hundreds of envelopes and little boxes and we are only partially through our collection.
    We found pictures of grandparents we didn't know we possessed. Pictures of ex-wives, siblings, grandchildren, and deceased relatives. There were pictures of me before I lost my hair, and pictures of me when I had a 27" waist while in the Navy. 
    Why do we spend 100' and 1000's of dollars on pictures only to put them in boxes and never share them with our friends and family? I remember walking through an Antique store recently and I found a box of old, old photographs. I thought to myself then how sad it was that family members didn't care enough, or were not aware of the treasures someone had of their family in old photographs.
    So we have been sorting through the pictures. I have some that I know old girlfriends and an ex-wife may like of their children. I have pictures my daughter may enjoy of herself and her children from 14 years ago. I plan to share these memories with the people I love before they fade away and end up in a dumpster when someone comes to clean out my house after I have left this world.
    If you want to have a great weekend with your family and loved ones, get out all of the boxes full of memories that have been packed away and go through each, one at a time. Share your stories, make notes on the back of some before you forget what or who they are and give important ones to other members of the family so they can continue to share them. Just have a great time reliving memories that were at one time important enough to you or someone else to record it for posterity.
    I plan to make a few collages, frame and hang them in my house. My next project is to get out all the old 8mm, and VHS tapes to copy over to DVD. Once this is done, I will be able to throw away over 1000 VHS tapes that I have been storing and lugging around for over 15 years, and