Riding home from our annual 4th of July family barbeque, my five year old Granddaughter made a serious revelation. “Uncle Al said that the reason that we don’t see all of our cousins, aunts, and uncles that often is that we keep them on ice and bring them out on the Holidays.” My assurances to her that he was just kidding met with a disarming and questioning look of what’s so funny about that?

But with this week’s blog prompt of encouraging Red Roomers to uncover those keepsake old letters and pictures, my Granddaughter's disclosure came to mind.

In a locker type trunk in my bed room closet is a treasure chest of memories. A frozen time capsule that helps restore a sense of belonging to a different time and place. Pictured celebrations of birthdays, weddings, banquets, sporting and celebrity events are mixed together randomly with vacation photos. All deposited with hope and promise. Maybe someday all will be neatly catalogued in albums but for now I have a personal grab bag of recollections in a trunk. And there are numerous paper remembrances of letters and programs. As I grow older I am happy for these reminders because uprooting the pleasant helps diminish " the I’d rather forget " life moments.

Of course, the hand held mementos bring laughter of the ever changing styles both of hair and clothes. And there is the stack of letters that arrived every year in the middle of December from Aunt Ellen. She was our yearly tracker of family current events. Nothing went unnoticed under her watchful eye and pen. Through phone calls, holiday visits and cards she was our designated scribe. Everything held a measure of importance with a wide range that included a new family baby’s weight to the planned menu at the next family wedding. When I reread both her reminisces of both life and death occurrences I marvel at the joy she recounted of the welcoming birth of a new family member and the anticipation that someday we would walk the golden streets of heaven, meet the Lord, and reunite with a passing relative.    

So, I am grateful to the Red room editors for their choice in this week’s blog topic. Megabytes unlimited could never replace what is stored in my personal treasure chest, because on occasion I have my own personal thaw of  frozen memories.

And if by chance you wonder if there are new additions to this collection, my prized contribution in the year of 2012 would have to be my Grandson’s Monster Jam ID card. Name, height, and weight entered correctly but next to eyes is matter of factly entered two. No mention of the color. (I still say that he is a genius!)