UFC - #99 ~ Memories for a Lifetime

This probably will be my last post of 2008... & I'm going to try to fit in a last creation for you. This is one I missed a little bit ago & really wanted to do... However, we have been granted a "make up challenge", if you will... & So, I choose the following... #99...

Jillermar's Challenge
While searching through an old trunk, you come across various items.
What particular treasure is of value to you?
Write about it.

~ Memories for a Lifetime ~
(Copyright - ⓒ A Fiction Narrative, by Lady Harley ⓒ)

I lifted myself up into the attic in search for the copy of my family tree that I had completed for a school project some 20 years ago.

Sticking my head through the square hole in the ceiling, I hollered down, "Mom, which trunk was that in?"

"It's in YOUR trunk! You know, the pink one!"

Though I was prepared, with my gloves & scarf, I was thanking my lucky stars that it was early enough in the winter that it was not too frigid yet.

Carefully I walked across the planks of the attic floor keeping my eyes open for any hint of my favorite color. Finally to my right there were the three trunks in a row. The one at the end by the window had a blanket over it, yet I could still see the light crimson colored box.

Tossing the blanket from the container over onto my sister's one next to it, I slowly opened it as if I half expected something to jump out of it. Exposing the contents was like opening a valued treasure chest. To me it was a treasure of memories.

Abounding with numerous photos & mementos from my childhood, I decided to sift through it right then & there. The cold did not seem to bother me as soon as I picked up the first piece of paper.

There were scratchings of what only a mother would think of as a budding artist. I could tell it was of my creation just by the numerous variations of the color pink. I laugh at the thought of the day I went to school in an all pink outfit from the pink ribbons in my pony tails down to the little pink flowered shoes.

Next was a photo of me next to a life size doll... my twin. Smiles abound as I remembered proudly standing at the local fair with a blue ribbon for the best dressed best friends. Thinking as an adult, I wonder if the coordinators of that fair ever thought a little girl would show up with a life size imitation of herself.

Digging a little farther I pulled out a scrap of material. This triggered the memory of the first time I sat in front of a sewing machine in Home Economics class. I listened intently as the teacher instructed us how to thread the bobbin and machine. Nervously my foot fell upon the speed control & my bobbin flew off bonking my friend sitting beside me. She picked it up & tossed it back to me and said, "I thought we were sewing, not playing catch." Laughing at the thought of how she always found a way to put a clever spin on something.

Moving aside some more photos I found a few dried flowers clumped together with a faded note: "To the girl of my dreams. May tonight be the start of a lifetime of memories together." My eyes sparkled as I remembered how that first evening with my now husband turned ugly from the start.

I was all dolled up in a satin pink gown for our senior prom. Looking forward to the night since the end of the previous school year, I made sure I was ready and waiting as my date pulled into the drive. Anxiously I ran down the steps to greet him before my pop could grill him with the usual father type questions. However, my shoes had a different idea. Needless to say, instead of dancing in his arms, I spent the night in an emergency room waiting room waiting for a cast.

Then something blue caught my eye. "Hmmm, that's in the wrong box." Though soon as I uncovered it, I realized it was indeed mine. It was the garter from my wedding just a few years prior. Tears began to roll down my cheek as I recalled how proud I was to walk down that aisle to the man who had seen the best and worse of me, yet still wanted to share the rest of his life with.

Putting each item back in the trunk I realized I had not found the artifact in which I had set out to retrieve. I turned back to call down to my mom to see if it could be somewhere else when I was startled to see her face poking through the attic opening.

She was smiling from ear to ear as she held up the piece of paper that I recognized to be the family tree we worked on many years ago. "Come on down, I have something to show you."

Delicately walking back across the wooden boards & descending down the ladder, I turned to my mom and asked, "Did you just send me on a wild goose chase?"

"Nope just a family tradition."

In her hands she held a green box similar to the 3 up in the attic Opening it she places the family tree in it & said, "This is for your attic."

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