The house is on the market awaiting sale. Maxine and I did a last walk through remembering Dad in this house from 1987 – 2011, surveying the last few percent of the items still within.
Here is the living room where Dad watched his Everybody Loves Raymond television shows or wildlife documentaries, listened to a tape of Polish or country music, or tuned the radio to the news or a Rush Limbaugh talk show.
Dad drank many a cup of coffee in this kitchen and ate many a Lil Debbie snack cake here.
His spare bedroom displays on the bed one of the afghans our mom knitted.
A dresser on another wall of that room supports a sturdy wooden toolbox, loaded with drill bits and weighing a ton!
We went through the remainder of the papers Maxine had not handled. We found the deed to our childhood home at 318 East Curtis Street in Linden, NJ, bought in 1942 for $2800. I brought back a few mementos with me. Here are the plaid stamps and S&H green stamps that our mom collected for household gifts.
Here is the letter head from Dad's carpentry business. Note the upper right corner. The date line reads 195_________.
And here are Dad's hand written class notes from when he went to electrical school to become a licensed electrician. Look at the silver embossed notebook cover.
We also found his discharge papers from the National Guard and his award for "War Work". It is amazing how a lifetime can be captured in a humble file cabinet. We gazed on lots of old photos. This one started an era in its own right. Here are Mom and Dad on their wedding day June 25, 1938.
It's neat to see that glimpse into grandpa's life, preserved as though he might walk back into it any second. That electrical notes manual looks amazing! And, I wonder how long that stuff was on the chalkboard, since grandpa lost his sight a few years before he passed. Was it his handwriting, or someone else's?
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