I mistakenly left my shopping list on the kitchen counter the other day. Chris laughed at the list and thought it was a little bizarre the combination of items that appeared in my scrawling handwriting but I saw nothing out of the ordinary about it whatsoever. I mean who doesn’t shop for beauty and cosmetic items and things for the outdoor critters???

You all know that I love the handwritten notes that my brother in law, Carlton, always used to leave me when we were living with him. Here is an example of one of the more treasured ones.

I never thought about my little notes and scribbles as being something to save and hang onto but a recent article by Barry Newman in the Wall Street Journal introduced me to the fact that sometimes those innocent scribblings and jottings may pull in big bucks and we all know how attractive that might be. Of course the article was talking about people like Norman Mailer and Bob Woodward and Carl Bernsteinwho have a reason to be recognized and famous. Seems that some of the “famous people” of today and yesteryear saved boxes of their writings and memorabilia and offer it for sale to places like libraries and museums. What a great idea!!!

My mom has kept a diary for years and years and years—-I think she started when she was a teenager. I always admired the way she would religiously write a few sentences each day about the happenings that were of most importance to her on that particular day. She shows discipline (there is that word again!) that I don’t have. She has repeatedly stated that she will burn all of them or destroy them before she dies as she does not want anyone to read them. She thinks they are trivial and silly (her words) but I disagree. They are history. They are probably a very accurate recollection of life that I have forgotten.

I have a huge box of letters that Chris and I wrote to each other when we were dating. I have all of the ones to him and all of the ones to me. Do I want my boys to read those someday??? Hmmmm…..I am still pondering that one. When we cleaned out Chris’s folks’ house I found a box where his mom had saved all the letters and cards that I had sent them after we got married. There are quite a few. Pictures have been taken out of them and put in separate boxes but the letters were saved which touched my heart. Did I have something worthwhile to say? Usually not but it was probably one of the best compliments that my mother in law could have paid me to save my letters. I wish I would have known when she was alive so I could have mentioned it to her.

Will my scribbled notes and messages ever be sold at an auction or to a library for massive amounts of money??? Doubtful. But then I bet that some of the folks who were mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article never thought they would have that happen to them either. Food for thought.

Perhaps I need to brush up on my penmanship—-that reference to Undie Sunday in the above note might be misunderstood….