Grandpa and Mom!

Of course, I’ve happened upon came across other stuff. Tons of it. Newspapers. Science magazines. Books. Grandpa had turned his apartment into a small maze with all of it! I also found some family things, scattered throughout his place. Some birthday and Father’s Day cards that Mom had made for Grandpa. A couple of letters Grandma had sent to him. I even found one of Mom’s science reports, which she had aced. Of course. (Go, Mom!)

But this is the kind of stuff I’ve recently come across. And I’ll be honest, I was pretty sure that I’d found everything I could, regarding Grandpa’s mysterious past. Reading through recent comments, though, Derek compelled me to give one last look. This forced me to revisit things I’d already searched through. Like a random folder I had found a while back, which had slides of Mom and Grandma and Grandpa.

Another random folder. Or is it?

I had set this folder aside to focus on the more puzzling items I had discovered. But when I returned to scan those slides, I noticed a small piece of paper I had somehow missed the first time. I unfolded it and saw this:

At first glance, it’s nothing huge. I mean, I feel like we’ve seen or heard of nearly everything mentioned here – a message from the society, talk of “the City,” the “future,” “tomorrow.” And yes, that darned symbol that keeps popping up when we least expect it to.

What boggles my mind, though, is the last bullet point – Tanya, my mom’s name. With an asterisk! And why had Grandpa lumped this note in with family slides. Yes, he was messy (thanks again, Grandpa, for that lovely gene), but unlike me, there was an order to his disorder. A system to his chaos. But Grandpa wasn’t perfect. Maybe it was an accident. Could it have been?

And because these are just too cute NOT to share – here are some of my favorite pics from the slides I scanned in!

Grandma & Grandpa

Grandpa & Mom!

Mom, being adorable.

Look at that smile!

Mom!

What a day!  Things were super-slow at the video store tonight.  I lined the aisles with grandpa’s old photos of men in thin ties and women in spectacular cat-eye glasses. I’m trying to put together a rough timeline of grandpa’s life. Vivian’s convinced I’m a crazy person. I honestly have no evidence to the contrary.

Despite the long day, you all inspired me to stay up tonight and continue to dig through lots of the choice World’s Fair stuff for the doc.  Found some great things here! Thinking of using them in a photo-montage about the World’s Fair if I can ever put together why Grandpa was really there. It was definitely more than just to get a corndog and to watch a robot Lincoln. Some photos are bigfoot-quality and some of them I don’t know what they are. They seem to be taken by Grandpa and the dates line up. The more I look at the pieces the less I seem to understand.

A quick selection of photos from grandpa’s files.

More soon! So much more.  For now – time for sleep!