Discarding the Past

Sometimes it's tempting to discard some things because they are cards and letters I wrote and they show what a dumb a-- I was! Of course, my current writings (this blog included) probably reveal the same failings. Honestly, though I think I'm smarter now! If you click on the picture and get a larger version and a good look at some of the stamps you can see that this stuff is really old. You may well ask how I came to have letters I wrote? Because my relatives (my mother and, especially, two aunts) saved them and I later got them from them.

I couldn't bring myself to discard many of them. I did manage to reduce the 'archive' box I was going through, though, by discarding some other things.

Reading all the stuff in this one box has made me light-headed with nostalgia for that younger, more hopeful and, I think, more energetic self. A number of the letters were written from Europe in 1972. This was my "official youthful tramp around parts of Europe like someone with no cares in the world" excursion. In the days before e-mail I wrote letters and people wrote to me and it took many days to communicate. I didn't save the letters I got while on that trip, apparently. At least I haven't found them. I did find some missives from other people from later decades. I even dropped some people an e-mail and quoted from one of these letters.