The Beginning Continued...

What makes 60 year-old grandparents jump into a 15-passenger van and drive across the continent from Olympia, Washington to Orlando, Florida? A cardboard box. Yes, this is one of those family history stories that starts with a box: a box covered in dust, found in a basement, under a bed, or in a closet, placed there by the provident fairy that filled it with a genealogist’s dream treasure. This story is no different.

After discovering the stack of letters in the hutch, my mother called her parents to share the findings. Reacting with the same excitement we had felt, my grandparents said, “You know, there’s this old cardboard box that we’ve had in our basement for years that great Aunt Cassie gave us before she died. We’ve never known what to do with it.” Still on the phone with my mother, they unearthed the box and started going through its contents. Through the telephone we heard exclamation after exclamation:

“Wow!”

“Oh my word!”

“What is this?”

Gasp!

“Ramona, you won’t believe it!”

Gasp!

“Wow!”

“What! What!” my mother demanded back.

“The stuff in this box is too precious and fragile to mail. We’re bringing it ourselves!”

From their home in Washington State, my grandparents packed up their 15-passenger van, while my mom and I waited impatiently at our home in Orlando, Florida. We charted their path across the continent on a large US map as each day slowly went by. Finally, the big old van and the anything-but-ordinary cardboard box arrived! We all wasted no time but dove immediately into the box and carefully began withdrawing its contents, only to reveal the absolutely unbelievable….

To be continued…..