When ya die, nobody cares about what you loved.

[Gracie]

Cuz yer dead. All they want is any gold, silver, money, cars, property. History of who made you and who made you before the ones that made you....nah. No cares at all. And I find that pretty damn sad.

When we were told we were losing our home and had to move..I burned EVERYTHING. Letters, pictures, diplomas, personal notes....EVERYTHING. Why? Because I had nobody to give it to and I didn't want it to wind up at the salvation army. I wondered if I did the right thing...until recently.

#### died. He was 76 years old. He is the spouse of the lady we are living with. He barely knew me and only nodded now and then when I came over to visit his wife. He was starting to warm up to me, though. But, not enough time passed before HE passed. And he was extremely private, this man. He felt uncomfortable when I was in the house because "he didn't know me". Well...I know A LOT about him now. And his parents. And their parents. What they did, where they went to vacation, their careers. Letter upon letters upon letters and post cards and diaries from 1890's to 1980's....all wars these people wrote to each other. WWI, WWII, Korean, Nam. His parents traveled a lot. His parents parents traveled a lot too. Switzerland, Africa, Mexico. And his wife Helen wrote about their experiences, took pics of Swiss quaint towns, Mazai Warriors, Mexican market folks, etc. His dad was a preacher and had a whole box of saved sermons he did every Sunday. His grandfather was a lawyer. They were all into sports, so there are many tickets to many games in their schools, diplomas, even wills from his grandparents. So, ####, private though he was, he is no longer. I know all about him and I find it extremely sad that his brother, son, daughter all came last week to go through ####'s things and most of it wound up in the recylce bin. They looked...but they were looking for folded money, gold, anything #### may have tucked away inside albums, photographs, letters, etc. And #### did indeed tuck away some gold, which I found and gave to his wife. It was his mothers baby ring from 1915, attached to a card with a frayed and very old ribbon. The family missed that one, but I dug thru most of what they tossed because....well...I don't know why I dug. Maybe because his granddaughter will want this stuff some day, and his wife surely did, but they didn't bother to ask her. They just dug and tossed.

So, MrG said he wanted to dig too. Why? because if they didn't want this stuff, then maybe the STAMPS on the hundreds of letters would be worth looking at. (MrG collects stamps. Or rather..USED to before we became what we are now...vagabonds). And yes....there are many stamps that may be worth a lot...some maybe not much. But the HISTORY of these people....its amazing. ####'s dad was a farmer and a well to do one, I might add. Hence, all that traveling. I even found his parents wills. And a ledger of his moms geneaology findings. Yet..they tossed them all in the trash. Which makes me feel so much better that I burned the fuck out of all of my stuff.

So I guess my point is..nobody cares about anything anymore. Its the ME ME ME NOW NOW NOW time. Fuck the past. Fuck history. Fuck travels and pictures and beauty and horror from wars they all experienced. And it makes me feel bad for #### and I wish I could tell him that I dug thru all that shit so his granddaughter (she is 8 years old) would know him..and his parents..and their parents...and their parents. If she will even care once she gets old enough to know what it all means and is and what made HER....HER.

 

[Pogo]

Gracie Gracie Gracie.

Sometimes I want to take your post and frame it and hang it on the wall.

 

[Wyatt earp]

Put the pictures on the net it will be there probably forever .

 

[eagle1462010]

 

[saveliberty]

Some times you can just feel like they are still here in part, by touching something they had or treasured.

 

[Gracie]

I guess what amazes me is...nobody wanted to touch what he loved or cared about.

My back is killing me. Tomorrow, I plan to sort thru ALL of it. And there are at least 25 file boxes FULL of that stuff.

 

[saveliberty]

I guess what amazes me is...nobody wanted to touch what he loved or cared about.

My back is killing me. Tomorrow, I plan to sort thru ALL of it. And there are at least 25 file boxes FULL of that stuff.

May be they are dealing with the loss by removing reminders?

 

[RandomPoster]

Everyone deals with death differently. When one of my dogs dies, I get rid of everything of theirs. It is best to acknowledge that they are gone, let go, and move on.

When I die I do not want a wake or funeral. I want to be cremated as soon as possible and have my ashes scattered in the wind. I do not want a grave and I want every trace that I was ever here burned and scattered.

Here is an excerpt from a famous story, The Mayor of Casterbridge. It is a man's will who has accepted his fate and has only the following requests.

"that I be not buried in consecrated ground.

that no sexton be asked to toll the bell.

that nobody is wished to see my dead body.

that no mourners walk behind me at my funeral.

that no flowers be planted on my grave.

that no one remember me.

To this I put my name.

Michael Henchard"

 

[Disir]

Cuz yer dead. All they want is any gold, silver, money, cars, property. History of who made you and who made you before the ones that made you....nah. No cares at all. And I find that pretty damn sad.

When we were told we were losing our home and had to move..I burned EVERYTHING. Letters, pictures, diplomas, personal notes....EVERYTHING. Why? Because I had nobody to give it to and I didn't want it to wind up at the salvation army. I wondered if I did the right thing...until recently.

#### died. He was 76 years old. He is the spouse of the lady we are living with. He barely knew me and only nodded now and then when I came over to visit his wife. He was starting to warm up to me, though. But, not enough time passed before HE passed. And he was extremely private, this man. He felt uncomfortable when I was in the house because "he didn't know me". Well...I know A LOT about him now. And his parents. And their parents. What they did, where they went to vacation, their careers. Letter upon letters upon letters and post cards and diaries from 1890's to 1980's....all wars these people wrote to each other. WWI, WWII, Korean, Nam. His parents traveled a lot. His parents parents traveled a lot too. Switzerland, Africa, Mexico. And his wife Helen wrote about their experiences, took pics of Swiss quaint towns, Mazai Warriors, Mexican market folks, etc. His dad was a preacher and had a whole box of saved sermons he did every Sunday. His grandfather was a lawyer. They were all into sports, so there are many tickets to many games in their schools, diplomas, even wills from his grandparents. So, ####, private though he was, he is no longer. I know all about him and I find it extremely sad that his brother, son, daughter all came last week to go through ####'s things and most of it wound up in the recylce bin. They looked...but they were looking for folded money, gold, anything #### may have tucked away inside albums, photographs, letters, etc. And #### did indeed tuck away some gold, which I found and gave to his wife. It was his mothers baby ring from 1915, attached to a card with a frayed and very old ribbon. The family missed that one, but I dug thru most of what they tossed because....well...I don't know why I dug. Maybe because his granddaughter will want this stuff some day, and his wife surely did, but they didn't bother to ask her. They just dug and tossed.

So, MrG said he wanted to dig too. Why? because if they didn't want this stuff, then maybe the STAMPS on the hundreds of letters would be worth looking at. (MrG collects stamps. Or rather..USED to before we became what we are now...vagabonds). And yes....there are many stamps that may be worth a lot...some maybe not much. But the HISTORY of these people....its amazing. ####'s dad was a farmer and a well to do one, I might add. Hence, all that traveling. I even found his parents wills. And a ledger of his moms geneaology findings. Yet..they tossed them all in the trash. Which makes me feel so much better that I burned the fuck out of all of my stuff.

So I guess my point is..nobody cares about anything anymore. Its the ME ME ME NOW NOW NOW time. Fuck the past. Fuck history. Fuck travels and pictures and beauty and horror from wars they all experienced. And it makes me feel bad for #### and I wish I could tell him that I dug thru all that shit so his granddaughter (she is 8 years old) would know him..and his parents..and their parents...and their parents. If she will even care once she gets old enough to know what it all means and is and what made HER....HER.

Take it to the county or state genealogy society, historical society or county museum. Sometimes a library houses genealogy stuff and keeps a "file". Depends on the state. Somebody will come looking for it.
I do a lot of genealogy and now do it for some of my friends. So, I am the nutbar in the library going through microfilm, old 1920s directories and census. I order records from the National Archives. I travel to county historical societies, libraries that have information and go through their microfilm, directories, and order some of their indexes and publications.

My great grandparents and extended family couldn't have known that I would be looking. My friend's great grandparents could not have known that I or my friends would be looking.
Or any of the people here:
Genealogy Trails History Group - Start your free family research here

 

[Care4all]

I have my grandmother's sweater, that she wore all the time.... she was always cold! And inside one pocket was a package of Chiclets gum, the yellow box with white Chiclets.... which she LOVED, and in the other pocket was her reading glasses and a small package of Kleenex tissues.... which you could always count on her having....

Thank you Gracie, you brought back some good memories for me... though your story is a sad one!

I would KILL for that kind of information about my family, I'm glad you saved it! I have been working Ancestry.com among other sites on tracing my genealogy for quite a while now.... it's a much slower process than I had anticipated....

but I have gone through several wills of my great x grandfathers and they all were very personal... families were much closer back then.... mine were mostly all farmers or public servants like mayors or sheriffs or town clerks or the clergy/ Pastors... but mostly farmers...even if they were those other things, they also had farms, and even plantations....

but their wills always were considerate and left specific things to each child, and eldest boys with instructions on how to take care of their mother and give her a portion of the estate, until she dies, and then when she died, personal things like special hair brushes and barrels of Molasses that he had bought for his wife from two states over.... and 8 chairs to stay with the table, until she passed on, or a specific chair in the kitchen was one daughter's favorite chair and could go with her.... Just weird things that all seemed real personal in their wills.... even clothing like a suit, was given to the youngest son, and strange things like that, which you would never think even needs to be in a will?

and sadly, including slaves.... some of my relatives, freed the slaves they had and gave them 50 acres of their own land to them... others left their slaves to their children... but asked that the families be kept together and not broken up among different children....

you can learn an awful lot about ones heritage with papers like that.... I'm glad you saved them....!!!!

sad the kids did not want them.... or did not even think of looking for them....

they just wanted dollar signs.... so sad.

 

[Gracie]

Granddad and dad (his) were from Illinois. Nobody here would want them. But I did find Cardcow.com. They might be interested in all this stuff. AFTER the more personal things are shredded.

 

[Disir]

To sell?

 

[Gracie]

Children must be taught to WANT to know what made them be in existence. They fought, loved, cried, laughed, traveled, died...and who they are is what that child may be. A world long gone, but still alive in knowledge of who they were. Which is why I burned all my own stuff. If there is no family...it ends. Strangers hang your old pics, people steal your social security number (I got his mothers off her original SS card when it first started! That will be shredded, tis a fact!).
His wife never had kids with him. They kind of shut her out. Which is sad, too. She will go thru it all with me, keep what she wants (including ####'s birth certificate which they did not want!), and then the rest will go..somewhere.

 

[TroglocratsRdumb]

Cuz yer dead. All they want is any gold, silver, money, cars, property. History of who made you and who made you before the ones that made you....nah. No cares at all. And I find that pretty damn sad.

When we were told we were losing our home and had to move..I burned EVERYTHING. Letters, pictures, diplomas, personal notes....EVERYTHING. Why? Because I had nobody to give it to and I didn't want it to wind up at the salvation army. I wondered if I did the right thing...until recently.

#### died. He was 76 years old. He is the spouse of the lady we are living with. He barely knew me and only nodded now and then when I came over to visit his wife. He was starting to warm up to me, though. But, not enough time passed before HE passed. And he was extremely private, this man. He felt uncomfortable when I was in the house because "he didn't know me". Well...I know A LOT about him now. And his parents. And their parents. What they did, where they went to vacation, their careers. Letter upon letters upon letters and post cards and diaries from 1890's to 1980's....all wars these people wrote to each other. WWI, WWII, Korean, Nam. His parents traveled a lot. His parents parents traveled a lot too. Switzerland, Africa, Mexico. And his wife Helen wrote about their experiences, took pics of Swiss quaint towns, Mazai Warriors, Mexican market folks, etc. His dad was a preacher and had a whole box of saved sermons he did every Sunday. His grandfather was a lawyer. They were all into sports, so there are many tickets to many games in their schools, diplomas, even wills from his grandparents. So, ####, private though he was, he is no longer. I know all about him and I find it extremely sad that his brother, son, daughter all came last week to go through ####'s things and most of it wound up in the recylce bin. They looked...but they were looking for folded money, gold, anything #### may have tucked away inside albums, photographs, letters, etc. And #### did indeed tuck away some gold, which I found and gave to his wife. It was his mothers baby ring from 1915, attached to a card with a frayed and very old ribbon. The family missed that one, but I dug thru most of what they tossed because....well...I don't know why I dug. Maybe because his granddaughter will want this stuff some day, and his wife surely did, but they didn't bother to ask her. They just dug and tossed.

So, MrG said he wanted to dig too. Why? because if they didn't want this stuff, then maybe the STAMPS on the hundreds of letters would be worth looking at. (MrG collects stamps. Or rather..USED to before we became what we are now...vagabonds). And yes....there are many stamps that may be worth a lot...some maybe not much. But the HISTORY of these people....its amazing. ####'s dad was a farmer and a well to do one, I might add. Hence, all that traveling. I even found his parents wills. And a ledger of his moms geneaology findings. Yet..they tossed them all in the trash. Which makes me feel so much better that I burned the fuck out of all of my stuff.

So I guess my point is..nobody cares about anything anymore. Its the ME ME ME NOW NOW NOW time. Fuck the past. Fuck history. Fuck travels and pictures and beauty and horror from wars they all experienced. And it makes me feel bad for #### and I wish I could tell him that I dug thru all that shit so his granddaughter (she is 8 years old) would know him..and his parents..and their parents...and their parents. If she will even care once she gets old enough to know what it all means and is and what made HER....HER.

People should scan all of their important documents and pictures and keep a digital copy.
You can donate a lot of stuff to Goodwill.
If you have ever watched Storage Wars it shows how people put stuff in storage until they stop paying the rent and then it's auctioned off or thrown in the dumpster.

 

[Gracie]

To sell?

Yes. Some of it. The diaries....especially about Africa. Granddad was a photographer as well as a preacher....some of those pics should go to a collector. He was very in to ferris wheels too. Lots of pics of those. Old ones, new ones. Personal info will be destroyed...but the stories? They will live on.

 

[Gracie]

Cuz yer dead. All they want is any gold, silver, money, cars, property. History of who made you and who made you before the ones that made you....nah. No cares at all. And I find that pretty damn sad.

When we were told we were losing our home and had to move..I burned EVERYTHING. Letters, pictures, diplomas, personal notes....EVERYTHING. Why? Because I had nobody to give it to and I didn't want it to wind up at the salvation army. I wondered if I did the right thing...until recently.

#### died. He was 76 years old. He is the spouse of the lady we are living with. He barely knew me and only nodded now and then when I came over to visit his wife. He was starting to warm up to me, though. But, not enough time passed before HE passed. And he was extremely private, this man. He felt uncomfortable when I was in the house because "he didn't know me". Well...I know A LOT about him now. And his parents. And their parents. What they did, where they went to vacation, their careers. Letter upon letters upon letters and post cards and diaries from 1890's to 1980's....all wars these people wrote to each other. WWI, WWII, Korean, Nam. His parents traveled a lot. His parents parents traveled a lot too. Switzerland, Africa, Mexico. And his wife Helen wrote about their experiences, took pics of Swiss quaint towns, Mazai Warriors, Mexican market folks, etc. His dad was a preacher and had a whole box of saved sermons he did every Sunday. His grandfather was a lawyer. They were all into sports, so there are many tickets to many games in their schools, diplomas, even wills from his grandparents. So, ####, private though he was, he is no longer. I know all about him and I find it extremely sad that his brother, son, daughter all came last week to go through ####'s things and most of it wound up in the recylce bin. They looked...but they were looking for folded money, gold, anything #### may have tucked away inside albums, photographs, letters, etc. And #### did indeed tuck away some gold, which I found and gave to his wife. It was his mothers baby ring from 1915, attached to a card with a frayed and very old ribbon. The family missed that one, but I dug thru most of what they tossed because....well...I don't know why I dug. Maybe because his granddaughter will want this stuff some day, and his wife surely did, but they didn't bother to ask her. They just dug and tossed.

So, MrG said he wanted to dig too. Why? because if they didn't want this stuff, then maybe the STAMPS on the hundreds of letters would be worth looking at. (MrG collects stamps. Or rather..USED to before we became what we are now...vagabonds). And yes....there are many stamps that may be worth a lot...some maybe not much. But the HISTORY of these people....its amazing. ####'s dad was a farmer and a well to do one, I might add. Hence, all that traveling. I even found his parents wills. And a ledger of his moms geneaology findings. Yet..they tossed them all in the trash. Which makes me feel so much better that I burned the fuck out of all of my stuff.

So I guess my point is..nobody cares about anything anymore. Its the ME ME ME NOW NOW NOW time. Fuck the past. Fuck history. Fuck travels and pictures and beauty and horror from wars they all experienced. And it makes me feel bad for #### and I wish I could tell him that I dug thru all that shit so his granddaughter (she is 8 years old) would know him..and his parents..and their parents...and their parents. If she will even care once she gets old enough to know what it all means and is and what made HER....HER.

People should scan all of their important documents and pictures and keep a digital copy.
You can donate a lot of stuff to Goodwill.
If you have ever watched Storage Wars it shows how people put stuff in storage until they stop paying the rent and then it's auctioned off or thrown in the dumpster.

Thats where this stuff was destined. Salvation Army box filled to the top....and standby boxes as well. Also the recyle trash can...which is now on my porch waiting for me to hit the second half pulling out pics, photo albums, 1940's greeting cards, his families dismissal from serving in WWII, etc etc etc. THAT will not go to trash OR Salvation Army. That will be packed away from granddaughter. Rest...off to Cardcow.com.

 

[Gracie]

I pulled out boxes and boxes of those pics you put in a machine..that slides one at a time? Foget the name of it....but y'all know what I mean, right? Slide the 2"x2" pic into the thingy...it slides one by one on a screen or wall? Anyway...old barns is titled one box of about 20 pics....flowers is another....pets is another.

 

[Jimmy_Chitwood]

I guess what amazes me is...nobody wanted to touch what he loved or cared about.

My back is killing me. Tomorrow, I plan to sort thru ALL of it. And there are at least 25 file boxes FULL of that stuff.

Take your time.

For as old as it is what will a little longer matter.

When my dad passed my family couldn't trash his stuff fast enough like you said. A valuables check and trash. Too fast for me and my step mom.

 

[TroglocratsRdumb]

Cuz yer dead. All they want is any gold, silver, money, cars, property. History of who made you and who made you before the ones that made you....nah. No cares at all. And I find that pretty damn sad.

When we were told we were losing our home and had to move..I burned EVERYTHING. Letters, pictures, diplomas, personal notes....EVERYTHING. Why? Because I had nobody to give it to and I didn't want it to wind up at the salvation army. I wondered if I did the right thing...until recently.

#### died. He was 76 years old. He is the spouse of the lady we are living with. He barely knew me and only nodded now and then when I came over to visit his wife. He was starting to warm up to me, though. But, not enough time passed before HE passed. And he was extremely private, this man. He felt uncomfortable when I was in the house because "he didn't know me". Well...I know A LOT about him now. And his parents. And their parents. What they did, where they went to vacation, their careers. Letter upon letters upon letters and post cards and diaries from 1890's to 1980's....all wars these people wrote to each other. WWI, WWII, Korean, Nam. His parents traveled a lot. His parents parents traveled a lot too. Switzerland, Africa, Mexico. And his wife Helen wrote about their experiences, took pics of Swiss quaint towns, Mazai Warriors, Mexican market folks, etc. His dad was a preacher and had a whole box of saved sermons he did every Sunday. His grandfather was a lawyer. They were all into sports, so there are many tickets to many games in their schools, diplomas, even wills from his grandparents. So, ####, private though he was, he is no longer. I know all about him and I find it extremely sad that his brother, son, daughter all came last week to go through ####'s things and most of it wound up in the recylce bin. They looked...but they were looking for folded money, gold, anything #### may have tucked away inside albums, photographs, letters, etc. And #### did indeed tuck away some gold, which I found and gave to his wife. It was his mothers baby ring from 1915, attached to a card with a frayed and very old ribbon. The family missed that one, but I dug thru most of what they tossed because....well...I don't know why I dug. Maybe because his granddaughter will want this stuff some day, and his wife surely did, but they didn't bother to ask her. They just dug and tossed.

So, MrG said he wanted to dig too. Why? because if they didn't want this stuff, then maybe the STAMPS on the hundreds of letters would be worth looking at. (MrG collects stamps. Or rather..USED to before we became what we are now...vagabonds). And yes....there are many stamps that may be worth a lot...some maybe not much. But the HISTORY of these people....its amazing. ####'s dad was a farmer and a well to do one, I might add. Hence, all that traveling. I even found his parents wills. And a ledger of his moms geneaology findings. Yet..they tossed them all in the trash. Which makes me feel so much better that I burned the fuck out of all of my stuff.

So I guess my point is..nobody cares about anything anymore. Its the ME ME ME NOW NOW NOW time. Fuck the past. Fuck history. Fuck travels and pictures and beauty and horror from wars they all experienced. And it makes me feel bad for #### and I wish I could tell him that I dug thru all that shit so his granddaughter (she is 8 years old) would know him..and his parents..and their parents...and their parents. If she will even care once she gets old enough to know what it all means and is and what made HER....HER.

People should scan all of their important documents and pictures and keep a digital copy.
You can donate a lot of stuff to Goodwill.
If you have ever watched Storage Wars it shows how people put stuff in storage until they stop paying the rent and then it's auctioned off or thrown in the dumpster.

Thats where this stuff was destined. Salvation Army box filled to the top....and standby boxes as well. Also the recyle trash can...which is now on my porch waiting for me to hit the second half pulling out pics, photo albums, 1940's greeting cards, his families dismissal from serving in WWII, etc etc etc. THAT will not go to trash OR Salvation Army. That will be packed away from granddaughter. Rest...off to Cardcow.com.

What you can't keep, sell.
What you can't sell, give away.
What you can't give away, throw away.

 

[whitehall]

Sometimes at estate auctions you see letters and documents and books that had obviously been treasured for hundreds of years by a family discarded by 21st century heirs who apparently couldn't find any CD's or DVD's they liked.