I’m currently in a frenzy of cleaning and purging – I discovered that I saved EVERY SINGLE PAPER from Christopher’s kindergarten year, and most from first grade.
Not surprisingly, the archives diminish precipitously after that.
Anyway, some finds:
1) A book of More Solo Readings for Radio and Class Work, undoubtedly my mother’s dating from the late 40’s, it looks to me. It might just come in handy for Katie, giving her something a little different for auditions and speech and such.
2) A photo of me and the small group of young women I served with in the summer of ’79 during a mission-type stint in Harlan, KY. You know how a photograph can just, like a shot, bring you back to a time and place? Yup. It did that.
3) A really interesting brown envelope that totally surprised me. When Katie was born, it seems, Christopher’s 4th grade teacher had the class write notes to her in sort of a class time-capsule, greeting her and telling her what they did and what was popular in 1991. A quick survey shows that the most popular of the popular things among 10-year olds in 1991 was….M.C. Hammer. Sic transit gloria mundi…and all that.
4) A VHS tape produced by ABC News about the Pope’s 1987 visit to the US. We watched it tonight – most fascinating, both for such a good look at the (relatively) young JPII, the busyness of the schedule and the sameness of the reporting. I mean…exact sameness.
5) Proof of the constancy of personality in David and Christopher’s early childhood artwork. Star Wars (for the former) and sports (for the latter – although Dino-Riders played a HUGE role in Chris’ creative stylings. I had forgotten all about Dino-Riders.)
And this, more proof:

 
(click on image if you can’t make it out) 
High praise, indeed.
Update:  In response to the already popular question, “Who is Will Clark?” 
(And in answer to why Will Clark was Christopher’s hero for so long when Christopher never did and never has lived anywhere near San Francisco or Texas…I asked him once, and I think it might have been because his was the first baseball card he ever got. Or something. I’m sure he’ll clarify.