I was doomed as a child . . . what can I say!! I started saving "things" before I knew they might ever have any value, they were just "pretty things" to me then . . . remember when people not only had printed napkins for their wedding but also printed matchbooks?? Well, i kept those . . . who would let a young child hoard matchbooks these days? A neighbor lady saved me the boxes she got greeting cards in "to keep your pretty things in" she always said. Maybe all this is HER fault.

In any case those matchbooks and printed napkins eventually were joined by birthday cards, the little name card off Christmas presents, church bulletins if my name appeared in it, school pictures exchanged with classmates, graduation announcements, funeral cards, baby shower invitations, wedding invitations, thank you notes. By the time i was married I had moved my things into a couple of big shoeboxes; by the time my kids were grown it was a toilet paper box in a closet . . . you see what is happeing here?

Our son was injured in an auto accident after many years in the US Navy and was living at home with us for a year or so while recuperating. He wanted to stay in contact with people but was physically unable to hold a pen so i bought a computer and he learned the old "Hunt & Peck" system of typing; he started asking questons about the toilet paper box in the closet of the bedroom he used and my explanation led to him buying me my first genealogy program database.

As I entered all the information from the stuff in that box, then I was faced with what to do with it next . . . I had thought I could throw away all the stuff; but, found myself sorting it into neat little bundles by families. it had become like real treasure to me and I could not discard the stained napkins or the complete matchbooks . . . so instead found myself hunting down addresses and maling these things back to the people from whom they had generated

It was a big hit with many who said they did not have a copy of their own graduation picture cuz their mom gave them to all the aunts and uncles! or no copy of the own wedding invitation, or nobody sent them an invitqtion to the baby shower they hosted for them . . . and so these were real keepers for many of those to whom I gifted these packets!!!

I need to do this again, surprising how these things just keep piling up; but, long as people are thrilled to get information back about themselves when they were little kids, it is not nearly so daunting!!

I had no idea that one could inherit such lunacy from a source that has never shown itself; however, I will say this . . . I praise God daily that if He had to allow me to have an addiction, then I am so grateful that it was not for alcohol.

Or for housework!!!
Have a blessed hunt, genie hunter

I was doomed as a child . . . what can I say!! I started saving "things" before I knew they might ever have any value, they were just "pretty things" to me then . . . remember when people not only had printed napkins for their wedding but also printed matchbooks?? Well, i kept those . . . who would let a young child hoard matchbooks these days? A neighbor lady saved me the boxes she got greeting cards in "to keep your pretty things in" she always said. Maybe all this is HER fault.

In any case those matchbooks and printed napkins eventually were joined by birthday cards, the little name card off Christmas presents, church bulletins if my name appeared in it, school pictures exchanged with classmates, graduation announcements, funeral cards, baby shower invitations, wedding invitations, thank you notes. By the time i was married I had moved my things into a couple of big shoeboxes; by the time my kids were grown it was a toilet paper box in a closet . . . you see what is happeing here?

Our son was injured in an auto accident after many years in the US Navy and was living at home with us for a year or so while recuperating. He wanted to stay in contact with people but was physically unable to hold a pen so i bought a computer and he learned the old "Hunt & Peck" system of typing; he started asking questons about the toilet paper box in the closet of the bedroom he used and my explanation led to him buying me my first genealogy program database.

As I entered all the information from the stuff in that box, then I was faced with what to do with it next . . . I had thought I could throw away all the stuff; but, found myself sorting it into neat little bundles by families. it had become like real treasure to me and I could not discard the stained napkins or the complete matchbooks . . . so instead found myself hunting down addresses and maling these things back to the people from whom they had generated

It was a big hit with many who said they did not have a copy of their own graduation picture cuz their mom gave them to all the aunts and uncles! or no copy of the own wedding invitation, or nobody sent them an invitqtion to the baby shower they hosted for them . . . and so these were real keepers for many of those to whom I gifted these packets!!!

I need to do this again, surprising how these things just keep piling up; but, long as people are thrilled to get information back about themselves when they were little kids, it is not nearly so daunting!!

I had no idea that one could inherit such lunacy from a source that has never shown itself; however, I will say this . . . I praise God daily that if He had to allow me to have an addiction, then I am so grateful that it was not for alcohol.

Or for housework!!!
Have a blessed hunt, genie hunter