The Neon Nurse's Charting

I complain a lot about our cluttery house. It's true that for quite a few years we have kept going to auctions and yard sales, even though available space to put the resulting loot was getting harder and harder to find. We have eyes bigger than our dwelling's square footage, I guess.

But it's still neat to be able to open about any random box and (re)find treasure. I did that a couple weeks ago, and when I spotted half a dozen Sears and Wards catalogs from the 60s, I decided it should be this box's turn to have its contents put on the market.

Down at the bottom of the box there was a smaller cardboard box, like handkerchiefs or scarves used to come in, neatly marked "Keep". The item on top was a darkly yellowed newspaper clipping, about how men coming back from the war (WWI) were likely to now have different expectations of their wives and of marriage in general. Then there were layers of postcards, some mailed, some carried home as souvenirs (New York! The Wonder City!), followed by a divorce decree. OK, now the clipping made sense. Next were more postcards and very old snapshots of farm equipment, and finally a drivers license and an obituary of the guy. He settled in a nearby town, worked for the railroad, eventually remarried, and was a pillar of his small community until he died in 1977.

So that was the story of one guy who went to the Great War, as told by the little snippets of keepsakes sold at auction to settle the estate for distant (as in both definitions of the word) relations. I thought it was a good one to share for Veterans Day.

I wish all the soldier boys (and girls!) love and happy endings.