The Mystery Trunk

Usually around the first or second week of November every year, I have a post about my trip home to Tennessee to help my mom celebrate her birthday.  And there are usually pictures of the leaves, or the lake, or the cotton fields. 

But this year I didn't take a single picture.  Plus, the trip was a little different.  My mom fell the week before her birthday and broke her arm/shoulder area.  She has since had surgery and is in a nursing home receiving physical therapy.

She was doing well enough that we got to spring her from the joint and put her in the getaway car for a short trip home.  She enjoyed being in her own house for a few hours, sitting in her own chair.  We still had some cake and presents, but it sure wasn't like past birthday parties.  But it could have been so much worse, and we are thankful for the little things.

When my mom sold her house earlier in the year and moved to a rental house, she got rid of a lot of things.  One thing that she still has is a camelback trunk similar to this one, except hers is in much worse shape, with broken hinges, and it's painted pink and white.  She keeps trying to get one of us to take it.  I don't think it's been opened in over 30 years, and she wasn't sure what was in it.

So, during this visit, my siblings and I went to the garage and went through the contents of the trunk.  It was mostly baby clothes, toddler clothes, little shoes and booties, some costume jewelry, some cards and letters, doll clothes for my sister's bride doll, my mom's high school basketball programs, things like that.  Everything was in very, very bad shape.  None of us felt sentimental enough to take any of the clothes or shoes, especially since we didn't know which of us wore the little outfits.  The only one I took was this little bitty dress, and that's because it actually had my name embroidered on the front.

 There were also lots of magazine cutouts, mostly of children, babies, furniture, pets, articles about things we weren't familiar with.  I assume these were intended to go in a scrapbook eventually.

 I'm not sure what it says about me that I wasn't sentimental enough to want the little shoes and clothes, but I just had to take some of these magazine clippings, because they made me laugh!  These will find a place in future journal pages or collage pieces.

Silliness has it's place in life, that's for sure!