Writing Desk (2)

A few days after I posted a blog entry about the writing desk built by my great-great-great-grandfather 160 years ago that I inherited recently, I received the following email from my uncle (my mother’s brother):

Hi JL:

Your mother sent me the story about the old desk. I am glad it is in the hands of someone that appreciates it. I also noticed the story was about your memories, not necessarily historical fact. But memories make better stories. Here are some of my memories.

About the Philco radio, I remember when we moved to Harper for three months in 1933. The radio rode in the rumble seat of Abe's Ford roadster with Gwen and I and Rogena rode in front where it was warm. So the radio came a year or more before 1933.

About the desk. I am quiet sure the desk never made it to the basement. On Edwards street it was always in the corner of the dining room. In the desk was an old cigar box full of pencils and misc. I suggested to my mother that she replace that old box and get something better. She informed me that the cigar box had been there as log as she could remember and it was going to stay. I know the desk has traveled from Illinois to Lincoln Nebraska in the 1890's, to Wellston Oklahoma, to Wichita, to Greensburg Kansas And several stops I do not know about.

About steam radiators, your McClure grand parents may have had steam radiators, but the Kaucher's did not.You probably didn't meet steam radiators in homes till you moved to Minnesota.

You should remember grandpa Frank Dixon. He was blind by the time of your memory. The maternal grand parent was Overman.

I recommend everyone write their memoirs. It is fun to reminisce in the stories even if you are not a writer. I will look forward to more stories. Maybe one about the riots in Berkeley.

Karl

How wonderful this digital world of the web can make these connections, pass along this kind of information, preserve this family history. It might be that no one ever accesses it again, or that no one cares. But it’s there if anyone should care to search for it, like a pirate’s treasure buried in the sands of some Caribbean island. And that in itself is pretty cool. In a digital sort of way.

(I do have the cigar box (El Roi-Tan) referred to in the message and have returned it to its rightful place in the desk. The “riots in Berkeley” he references is the 1969 People’s Park demonstrations that I participated in the summer I spent in Berkeley. I had no idea he even knew about that.)