Journey through the past

I've been consumed the past couple of weeks by the unexpected and not unfrightening task of going through my folks' house, pulling out everything in it, and segregating it from all my stuff that I've spent the last few months moving into it.

This has been a daunting task.

Bonnie has been invaluable. I've often found myself unable to focus, wandering around the house like a zombie. By gently prodding and pulling, she has been able to keep me going. This is the same house I lived in for 30 years before moving out. Nearly everything my parents acquired in their 58 years there is still there. I spent the last two days dragging everything out of the attic, which I used to play in, but which I hadn't been in for probably 40 years.

Delightfully, some toys turned up which I remember barely, if at all. Here are a few of them.



Here we have, right to left, Katy Kackler, Buzzy Bee (I think), Teddy Zilo, and Merry Mutt. These are from the late 40s and early 50s. When rolled along the ground, Katy flaps her wings and clucks. Teddy actually plays his xylophone. Merry Mutt would also, but, alas, his parts are not quite up to it.

There is so much stuff of this vintage that I feel like I'm in a time machine.

There are a whole stack of "Hit Parade" magazines from the 40s that my mom must have memorized, filled with the hit songs of the day (along with quite a few no one has ever heard from since.) And there are many Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines from the mid 40s to 50s which my dad must have gotten after he got out of the army. I read them from the late 50s on, but never knew that my dad had gotten them earlier. We always had them around the house, but I never saw him reading them.