- Joined
- Sep 2, 2005
- Messages
- 14,455
- Reaction score
- 3,328
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
So I spent some time this weekend shutting down my grandparent's house with my dad and my aunt. I haven't been to the place in quite a few years, so it was kind of surreal going back. Interestingly, my grandmother is actually still alive. She's 94, but she's basically gone as her mind is pretty much not there anymore. (she's in a home)
My relationship with my grandparents has always been a little flaky, so it wasn't a huge emotional event, but it was still a little challenging. Fact is that my parents moved every couple years, while my grandparents NEVER did (nor did they ever change a scrap of the wall coverings, flooring, etc.) so to me, this house was pretty much as close to home as they come. Very weird driving away from it and knowing I would never EVER see it again.
These are all crappy pictures from my phone, but I felt like sharing....
The garage... who knows what wonders it holds... I've always been curious what was buried in here...
It turned out to be about 95% boxes with random Christmas crap. My dad and I started to laugh every couple minutes when we cracked open yet ANOTHER box of Christmas crap. "Oh, hey... Dad? Yeah. I don't want to alarm you, but... I found a box of Christmas crap." Was pretty funny.
I did find this little gem...
I mean really... a home just isn't a home without a Jesus nightlight.
So there really wasn't much in there. There was an ancient old two-man logging saw, which belonged to my great-grandfather. A few interesting old tools. A couple pieces from my grandpa's work (he used to be a type-setter back in the days when that was all mechanical).
Then we found "the trunk". It was buried in the way back and sitting under a toybox full of all my dad's old SciFi books he read when he was a kid. It said "a.s.a." on it... which I later figured out meant "Army Security Agency". The trunk wasn't opening for some reason, and I didn't know if it had anything in it, so I stuck a pole through a hole in the top and felt ... something ... in there. Felt like a dead animal, actually, so I sorta jumped.
Anyway, I did manage to get it open and was met with a WALL of mothball smell. My grandparents put mothballs everywhere. Digging around we first turned up some REALLY old pictures. I don't have them all captured on my phone, but here's a couple...
First one is of my grandfather and his dad. This, I believe, was taken in Italy where my grandfather was born. (BTW, these pictures are huge... like over 1.5' tall). (they also REEK of mothballs)
Next one is of my grandmother's family. My grandmother is on the far left. Amazingly, I instantly identified her by her eyes. The father is seated. The mother is the one holding the baby (my uncle Tony, who is now like 85 years old). Suspiciously my Uncle Frank and Uncle Charlie are missing from the picture. Not sure what's up with that.
There was also one each of the two parents of my Grandmother's family, and a picture of my grandfather's army platoon.
I'll be getting all of these framed and hung up somewhere pretty soon. Well, once they stop smelling of freakin' mothballs, anyway.
So we continued to dig in the chest and turned up a dress, which I identified from a wedding picture as the dress worn by my grandma when they got married. It was pretty destroyed for some reason. Not sure why. Essentially nothing to salvage there.
And then we turned up what is pretty much the thing that made the entire effort of cleaning the house out worth it...
My grandfather's WWII army jacket with his service "medals" (or whatever those things are called) intact and in place. (well, one bar was not secured for some reason- the other three were).
My grandfather was part of an anti-tank platoon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_destroyer_battalion_(United_States)
Pretty wild. Grandpa used to tell stories about some of the tactics of the squad. It was #@#$)* crazy-ass, but very cool.
I mean, sure, everyone's grandpa is a neat person, but seriously... how many of you can say that your grandfather dug a hole in the ground, waited for a tank to roll over his head, secured a live explosive to the bottom of it and then waited for it to blow up 30' away??? Hmm?
The patch was on the shoulder of the coat, and there were a couple spares in the trunk. My dad and I also have a couple of these each, as my grandfather gave them to us years ago. there were also two caps, a few extra "US" pins, etc. All in amazingly good shape and (shockingly!) moth free. lol
Anyway, I asked my Dad what he wanted to do with it and he wasn't sure. He's been trying to wind down his own affairs so I won't have to empty HIS house when he finally passes away. I offered to keep it and frame it and he thought that was a great idea. He suggested I also take and frame the flag that draped grandpa's coffin when they buried him, so I have that now as well.
The coat and pictures are currently hanging in the garage airing out. The garage smells like a mothball factory, but I suspect after a few weeks it'll settle down and I'll be able to bring everything in.
BTW, reportedly my grandfather had no idea where he had put his uniform and no one had seen it since his wedding. They had been in this house some 55 years, so we're pretty sure that none of these things had seen the light of day in at least that long. Pretty amazing when you think about it.
Anyway... that's it. Just felt like sharing. Hope it was interesting.
My relationship with my grandparents has always been a little flaky, so it wasn't a huge emotional event, but it was still a little challenging. Fact is that my parents moved every couple years, while my grandparents NEVER did (nor did they ever change a scrap of the wall coverings, flooring, etc.) so to me, this house was pretty much as close to home as they come. Very weird driving away from it and knowing I would never EVER see it again.
These are all crappy pictures from my phone, but I felt like sharing....
The garage... who knows what wonders it holds... I've always been curious what was buried in here...
It turned out to be about 95% boxes with random Christmas crap. My dad and I started to laugh every couple minutes when we cracked open yet ANOTHER box of Christmas crap. "Oh, hey... Dad? Yeah. I don't want to alarm you, but... I found a box of Christmas crap." Was pretty funny.
I did find this little gem...
I mean really... a home just isn't a home without a Jesus nightlight.
So there really wasn't much in there. There was an ancient old two-man logging saw, which belonged to my great-grandfather. A few interesting old tools. A couple pieces from my grandpa's work (he used to be a type-setter back in the days when that was all mechanical).
Then we found "the trunk". It was buried in the way back and sitting under a toybox full of all my dad's old SciFi books he read when he was a kid. It said "a.s.a." on it... which I later figured out meant "Army Security Agency". The trunk wasn't opening for some reason, and I didn't know if it had anything in it, so I stuck a pole through a hole in the top and felt ... something ... in there. Felt like a dead animal, actually, so I sorta jumped.
Anyway, I did manage to get it open and was met with a WALL of mothball smell. My grandparents put mothballs everywhere. Digging around we first turned up some REALLY old pictures. I don't have them all captured on my phone, but here's a couple...
First one is of my grandfather and his dad. This, I believe, was taken in Italy where my grandfather was born. (BTW, these pictures are huge... like over 1.5' tall). (they also REEK of mothballs)
Next one is of my grandmother's family. My grandmother is on the far left. Amazingly, I instantly identified her by her eyes. The father is seated. The mother is the one holding the baby (my uncle Tony, who is now like 85 years old). Suspiciously my Uncle Frank and Uncle Charlie are missing from the picture. Not sure what's up with that.
There was also one each of the two parents of my Grandmother's family, and a picture of my grandfather's army platoon.
I'll be getting all of these framed and hung up somewhere pretty soon. Well, once they stop smelling of freakin' mothballs, anyway.
So we continued to dig in the chest and turned up a dress, which I identified from a wedding picture as the dress worn by my grandma when they got married. It was pretty destroyed for some reason. Not sure why. Essentially nothing to salvage there.
And then we turned up what is pretty much the thing that made the entire effort of cleaning the house out worth it...
My grandfather's WWII army jacket with his service "medals" (or whatever those things are called) intact and in place. (well, one bar was not secured for some reason- the other three were).
My grandfather was part of an anti-tank platoon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_destroyer_battalion_(United_States)
Pretty wild. Grandpa used to tell stories about some of the tactics of the squad. It was #@#$)* crazy-ass, but very cool.
I mean, sure, everyone's grandpa is a neat person, but seriously... how many of you can say that your grandfather dug a hole in the ground, waited for a tank to roll over his head, secured a live explosive to the bottom of it and then waited for it to blow up 30' away??? Hmm?
The patch was on the shoulder of the coat, and there were a couple spares in the trunk. My dad and I also have a couple of these each, as my grandfather gave them to us years ago. there were also two caps, a few extra "US" pins, etc. All in amazingly good shape and (shockingly!) moth free. lol
Anyway, I asked my Dad what he wanted to do with it and he wasn't sure. He's been trying to wind down his own affairs so I won't have to empty HIS house when he finally passes away. I offered to keep it and frame it and he thought that was a great idea. He suggested I also take and frame the flag that draped grandpa's coffin when they buried him, so I have that now as well.
The coat and pictures are currently hanging in the garage airing out. The garage smells like a mothball factory, but I suspect after a few weeks it'll settle down and I'll be able to bring everything in.
BTW, reportedly my grandfather had no idea where he had put his uniform and no one had seen it since his wedding. They had been in this house some 55 years, so we're pretty sure that none of these things had seen the light of day in at least that long. Pretty amazing when you think about it.
Anyway... that's it. Just felt like sharing. Hope it was interesting.
Last edited: