WUNDERKAMMER VI
The beat goes on. Let’s see if
anything we dug up this month is worthy of your interest.
|
You won’t be able to read these unless you zoom in
on the pic, but there are report cards from 13 of the 15 different towns in
Michigan where I went to school from kindergarten through 12th.
One town didn’t give me anything because we |
|
|
were there so briefly. Another school just gave
me a letter of introduction for presentation to the next school.
The text on the right is from the card received from
South Haven. Obviously that teacher didn’t have much
experience with me, or else was not a very good judge of character.
Mom gathered these cards over the years and the file
really came in handy. When I first applied for a security
clearance, it was necessary for me to provide places of residence from BIRTH and
this was the source!
|
|
My jock jacket from Perry High School has holes in
it and is so stiff I was afraid to try it on, but here it is in all its glory.
I played a little football and a little basketball, mostly as a
benchwarmer and fodder for the real jocks during practice. It
was enough to letter two years.
The valedictorian medal is actually about the size
of my thumbnail, but at that size you wouldn’t be able to read it, so here it is
blown up a bit. I didn’t feel the need to enlarge the letter P for
Perry.
I found about three months of copies of the weekly
Shiawassee County Journal, the local newspaper published by the company I worked
for in Perry, MI on and off from 1948 to 1962. Since I had
kept them I guessed that I had a reason. I looked through
them and found one article about my father’s retirement, but nothing else that
seemed to warrant my interest. The second time through I
found the reason. During this period in 1962, I helped with
all sorts of things surrounding the business, and one duty was photography.
I apparently wanted to keep issues with pics I had taken and my by-lines
– here are a couple of examples.
One of the treasures acquired in our stay in
Thailand was a set of brass table ware. It is service for 12
with more different forks, spoons and knives than I know how to use.
The “dinner” fork, spoon and knife is what I know how to use and the
other “versions” (e.g., salad forks, dessert spoons, butter knives) are out of
my league and remain in the case. Over the years, one by one,
the dinner forks have lost a tine or two and been retired.
I’ve tried to find a source to replace them but have been unsuccessful.
However, I still have three and how many can I need?
Company can use salad forks (or whatever those smaller ones are).
I wore bifocals for almost 40 years until I had
cataract surgery. The prescription changed over the years and
lenses and sometimes frames got replaced. I always kept one
pair back for emergencies, and didn’t intend to collect them, but they got
tucked away here and there and finally got gathered together in the process of
the digging around I’ve been doing. Here is a going away
picture. They are being donated to the Lions Club and
hopefully, at least the frames can be recycled. (I do like
the snap cases but can’t think of a use for them.)
The contents of my right pants pocket – now and for
many years gone by. The key ring came with my 1987 Olds.
Although the keys have changed, the ring has been very comfortable.
I picked up the rock from the shore of Lake Superior at the mouth of the
Black River in Upper Michigan in 1992. I don’t know why it
appealed to me, but it did. It had been smoothed by eons of
rolling back and forth in the sand and has a depression for my thumb so I can
use it like a worry stone. I have ceremoniously washed it in
countless bodies of water including oceans, Great Lakes, lakes, ponds, rivers
and streams.
I was sitting in a meeting once and someone said
“let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. I reached
in my pocket and pitched it across the table, to the enjoyment of all attendees.
The glass fishnet floats are of indeterminate age,
but are a relatively new acquisition to me. They show up on
beaches everywhere and I’ve always wanted one so when I saw them in a pawn shop,
I pounced. Why? Why not!
Army paraphernalia stripped from my discharge
uniforms included name tags, rank, medals, unit id and brass items to keep me
busy polishing nights and weekends. I was a Specialist 5, E-5
at the end but I wore the three stripes of an Acting Sargent.
We were in the 3rd Armored Division (Spearhead), which was
affectionately called the 3rd Herd. I was awarded
the Good Conduct medal as well, but I gave it to Monica, the waitress in my
favorite Gasthaus. She deserved it more than I did.