More Basement Treasures...One From Mom And One From Dad

Where we live, we're fortunate enough to have a lot of space. It's shrinking every year, of course, but when the pioneers settled the area in the mid 1800s, the one thing they didn't lack was space. Now, more than a century and a half later, the roads are wide. The homes are large. The space between towns (when you leave the metropolitan areas...) is immense. 

What has this got to do with finding hidden treasures in our basement?

A good question.

Growing up we lived in a huge house. My dad designed it and was in the middle of building it when he passed away from cancer. Yeah...it sucked. Because it was a huge house for a mother and three children, and because my parents grew up during The Great Depression, they saved things. They saved everything. I loved digging in old boxes, opening flies of papers, and looking through old photos. There was so much stuff there.

And we saved it because we had the room.

My house, which is right across the street from my childhood home, is not as big and we have almost double the people. We have one big room in which to store stuff. We haven't gone through that stuff in years--decades, even. Now, we're taking on the challenge of cleaning up. We hung on to the stuff all these years because we have the space, pure and simple. And in the west, we're used to having a lot of space.

Tonight I checked out a box that has yet to be assigned a spot. I found something from my mom and something from my dad. In my mom's wallet I found some real beauties--a Smith's Video Store rental card, and a KSL Blue Chip card. If you're not familiar with this item, it was Groupon before Groupon. KSL is a local TV and radio station. They sort of ruled the roost back in the day. They still might--I don't know because I don't really pay attention anymore. You could use the card for discounts at station advertisers. 

My dad's contribution to the box is more rare. I'm assuming it's from WWII. My dad was a tail gunner on a B-17 crew. Before there was a US Air Force, there was the Army Air Corp. The patch on the leather pouch says US Air Forces so I'm not sure where (or when...) my dad picked it up--it's wicked cool, though.

There's more stuff down there, but with each box, our stuff is dwindling. I guess with all that extra room, we have more space for more new things. Not sure my wife would agree...