Address Book=Book of Memories

During yet another cleaning project (one of many started but not yet finished) I found my mother's address book, the old fashioned hand written kind of address book with people's old contact information crossed out and the new information written below.

From what I can tell she used the book from sometime in the early 1940s until her death in 1965 when she was 51 years old.. It is, of course, special to me because it was my mother's and is filled with her handwriting. It is special on another level because of the memories I have some of the names and places she entered into the book. Though there are many names I don't know at all there are others that bring back a rush of memories.

Cascia Hall was on of several high schools that my brother attended in our hometown, Tulsa, Oklahoma, that at some point "asked him to leave". If I remember correctly in this case my brother got in trouble for getting between a teacher and a student the teacher was paddling, unfairly my brother thought. Not to worry, things turned out well for my brother. He ended up with a P.hD and is still willing to stand up against something he thinks is wrong.

My Aunt Dorothy was a very cool woman who lived in a very elegant area in Chicago about 1/2 block off Michigan Avenue. Though I wasn't, I thought I was pretty cool when I got to go visit her. 

Tippy LaGrave (isn't that a fun name?) was a friend of my mother's who had no children of her own. When I was 7 or 8 she started taking me to the ballet and the symphony and other such performances that I probably would not have otherwise had as much exposure to. I just Googled her and found out her real first name was Agnes....I kind of wish I hadn't found that out.

The Van Sants were friends of my parents that we visited from time to time in Colorado. I think he and my dad had been Army buddies during WWII. I remember them living on a farm that had a cherry orchard. My first snow skiing experiences were during visits to the Van Sants. This was so long ago that the skis were six feet long and made of wood. 

Chloe (Snell) Key was a lifelong friend of my mother. My mother told stories of having to sneak out of her house to see Chloe because Chloe was an Indian and there was a great deal of prejudice against Indians in the small Oklahoma town where they lived during the time they were growing up. Her parents would not have approved of the friendship. One of the things I can say about both of my parents is that neither of them ever showed any kind of racial or cultural prejudice toward anyone.

More names, more memories, but that is enough for now.

I do have an old, handwritten address book that I use sometimes but it is far from up to date since I keep so much of that information on my computer or my phone. I wonder what my kids will think about it if they find it sometime in the future.

Do you keep a handwritten address book or is it all electronic these days?