Not Guilty

I don't often get the opportunity to identify something as something I definitely don't feel guilty about.  But tonight I mailed all of my Christmas cards.  Well, except for two cousins who have moved and whose addresses I still need to get.  And an uncle-in-law, whose address I got late.  But that's as nearly finished as makes no nevermind. 

I am feeling very not guilty.  At least about that.

Things I've learned about the Grandfather I never met

I'm also going to list things that I probably knew, but hadn't thought about for awhile. 

1. He was in the Navy.  He was assigned to the U.S.S Colorado according to the letters sent from 1930 to 1932.  About every sixth letter he talks about needing to get out of the Navy to be home with the people he misses.
2. He was a fiend for run-on sentences.  They read fine, because I read them as if they were broken up. So I didn't really notice until I typed a couple of them into my notes.  I'd have added paragraph breaks to some of those sentences.
3. He uses the words gee, keen, and swell a lot.  He often starts sentences (or clauses, in his run-ons) with gee, well, or heck.  He used sure as an intensifier, as in 'you're sure swell' or "it's sure keen." 
4. He always writes 'to' instead of 'too.'  (Yes, I do get paid for technical editing.  Why do you ask?)
5. He leaves the apostophes out of most of his contractions and the few he includes tend to end up before the N rather than after it.
6. "I sure have got those blues again . . ." ; ". . .well I should hope to smile."; ". . . well it all counts on twenty."; "I'm an honest square shooting man. . ."; ". . . desperately in love. . .".
7. More than a few people called him Red.
8. His ship was berthed in Seattle when his son (my Dad) was born in Bensenville, Illinois.  He didn't see him until he was 4 to 6 months old. 
9. He and Grandma called my Dad "Little Pal" (with the quotes) before he was born and for about half a year after.
10. In 1931 he usually started his letters to Grandma with:  My Honey Bunny Boo. 
11. I can't send money this week because - things will just be perfect when we finally get together - you're nearly perfect - you're an angel - I almost never leave the ship so I won't be tempted - I get crazy jealous when your letters mention other men. 

This is from Grandma's letters.  I remember other bits and pieces from Aunt D's things, but I'm not going to open that box now.

Am I getting up to date with my Guilt?

November 5, 2011

I'm going through Aunt D’s stuff.  This is the stuff picked up last weekend.  I'm feeling guilt at throwing out the odd stuff that she kept and a sneaking guilt at being curious about her income and other things.  So I’ll take notes on that as I throw things out, to ease the pangs.  This isn't uncaring disposal or nosiness, it's creating family history. 

Tax records from 1981 to 1994 - tossed.  Of course I made notes on the tax records, especially the addresses she had lived at.

A good performance review from ’88 for Clerk II Orange County – tossed. 

A framed certificate of award for a suggestion for improvement of services from LA County, for which she received $40 – tossed the frame, kept the certificate.  I may toss the certificate, too after I've scanned it.

There were many copies of her request for retirement in 1986.  At first it seemed odd that there would be so many copies, but that was possibly related to the envelope I found with the list of LIES! they were telling her. 

The retirement would have been a stressful subject anyway because her views on financial decisions were very different from those of the mother and brother that she often received significant sums of money from.  I'm pretty sure that they had no idea that she was tapping into her retirement with one agency while still working at another.  So when she hit bureaucratic snags to starting it up, she couldn't complain to them about it.

While she was in the hospital and nursing facility, I had discovered that she had saved every bill and semi-official piece of mail she had ever paid or received.  They were arranged chronologically in her drawers.  When I arranged for hospice in her home, I cleared out quite a bit of it.  What I'm going through now had been stored away in boxes.

She saved grades from Harbor Jr College, between 1959 and 1964.  Mom spoke of them being in the same nursing program, but I don’t see any nursing.  Maybe she only saved the A's and B's.  She also took an Office Serv&DP class from Orange Coast College in 1981 (A).