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Rolling out the past...
Chartreuse – Purple – Magenta
Such a striking combination of colors struck my fancy to incorporate in the floral pattern transferred to fabric from the design I created on a silk screen stencil. A senior in high school at that time, enrolled in the advanced class of Art II, the designing process was done by hand rather than on nonexistent computers. My silk print, the size of a rectangular tablecloth, representing artistic achievement, was placed inside a filing cabinet for posterity. Treasured because my abstract art endeavors far surpass my primitive drawing skills, which at best, produce stick-figure humans and lollipop trees.
The filing cabinet, kept in the basement of my childhood home, was constructed of metal in a drab olive color, and contained four drawers which stored other keepsakes over the years—many years. Eventually, the dampness caused the bottom drawer to bottom out. When it came time for me to strike out on my own and make my home away from home, I rummaged inside the drawers, re-examining the contents, still unscathed. More valuable for what each represented compared to their face value:
My sixth-grade scrapbook of leaves represented the time my mother and I spent together gathering specimens and pouring through a handbook to locate various oak leaf varieties for the purpose of labeling each. Then, we rubbed liquid floor wax over every leaf for preservation.
The chunky wooden adapter my father made for my record player to accommodate the pile of 33rpm classical records without middles, he came across and brought home from work one day. Representative of broadening my adolescent appreciation for music beyond rock n’ roll, regardless of the drag on Beethoven’s compositions.
The stash of typewritten stories I’d composed on my Tom Thumb typewriter at the age of twelve, representing the literary path I’d follow after my retirement from teaching.
Although the filing cabinet and its contents have long since been disposed of, well-preserved memories are filed in the recesses of my mind, ready to roll out when summoned.
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Sandie
I never knew that floor wax saved autumn leaves from deterioration. Always thought that all you had to do was place them in a book for a year or so and they would be preserved and flattened.
Was that adapter chunky or clunky? Perhaps both. At least it wasn't Chucky, especially at Halloween time. ;-)
My brother just sent me scans of my mother's scrapbook that I didn't know she kept. Wonderful to see events in her life and in my brothers' and sister's lives. Clarifying when things happened from newspaper articles and other original documents. It is so much easier now to keep records… And lose them when hard drives fail.
Ron
Regis. 🌺🍁🍂
Mark