Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

I mentioned in last week’s article that Mary Lou and I were trying to empty one of our three storage units here in Auburn.  I am proud and excited to announce that this past Saturday we accomplished our goal.  It is amazing what you can stuff into a storage unit.

Our goal has always been to empty items we stored upon our move to Auburn.   We lived in Donalsonville over 40 years, 37 of those in a house that had an enormous amount of storage.  When packing up our house, the office, and our big building at the Industrial Park became overwhelming, the last of the “stuff” was put in boxes for later handling.  That was six years ago.

Some of the items that have been rediscovered, yet again, include a book of my great-grandmother’s writings published on my grandparents’ 60^th anniversary.  It is of note that the date was also our own tenth anniversary.

I also found, again, some of the business correspondence of my great-grandfather, Ernest Ford, who graduated from Auburn, Alabama Polytechnic Institute at the time, in 1905.  His company, Ford Manufacturing Company, produced medical remedies, including Swamp Herbs, Kidney Tone Tablets, Liver Pills, and a Number One Chill Tonic.

Along the way we had saved the notes that everyone wrote almost 18 years ago at a family gathering about their own favorite memories of Christmas.  We will share those at a future gathering as they are a treasure.

My first library card managed to survive, along with various excuses from Dean Simmons of the School of Agriculture who granted me several excuses to miss classes because of the peanut harvest season.

I still have the official certification of the two oak trees we planted in Donalsonville that were propagated from cuttings of the original Auburn Oaks.  They both survived Hurricane Michael and can be seen behind the deck of our old office building, now home of First Port City Bank, and our former home at the corner of South Morris and 4^th Street.  Hopefully they will be covered in toilet paper if Auburn should ever beat Georgia in football again.

My draft cards have survived, though I doubt I would be called up now that I am in my seventh decade.  I have my initiation card from Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Phi Kappa Phi, and my student ID card from when I was a freshman at Auburn.  It has three holes from a hole puncher.  I have no idea what they holes were punched for and doubt that a freshman today would even know what a hole puncher is.

I have more piano music than I could ever play in my lifetime.  I would buy a book just to get the music for one or two songs.  Now you search online, download in your key of choice, and play from your iPad.  How times have changed.

In a small envelope, I have all the different business cards that I ever used.  They started with Beall Peanut Company, then Ponder Enterprises, followed by various political offices, and finally ended with what I call my retirement card.  Just my name, address and contact information.   I worked hard to get to that final card.

I have found a cache of coins and bills from countries around the world.  Much of it was probably from my grandparents, who traveled extensively when they retired in the 1960’s.  However, I am uncertain where the Vietnamese bills tucked away in an envelope came from.

I could go on and on.  I suspect many of you reading this have stashes of forgotten treasures tucked away in your own closets and attics.

Of particular interest to me was an envelope having letters from an elementary class that I visited when I was mayor.  I read and re-read every letter.  Some of the children I remember but all the writings were amazing.  Some of these kids are married now.

The teacher, Cecelia Phillips, wrote me a very nice note when she sent me all the letters.  She admitted that she had collected the letters and then forgot to mail them to me.  Being married to a teacher, I totally understand.  However, in her own letter she said it is never too late to be thankful.  All these years later, I am thankful that she sent these precious letters and I once again got to read them.

As I get down to the last of the miscellaneous collections that have gathered dust for decades, I am thankful for these glimpses into the past.  The memories will last long after the paper has gone.