Post 50/2023. Rather than write a Year in Review blog, I’ve opted to comment on memories that were biding their time among a collection of things stored in a box. With almost each item memories came flooding back, along with questions of “What now with the stuff?”

Sorting through boxed memories

Let memories flow

The Red Lantern Inn was a Supper Club and events venue at Beverly Shores, Indiana. It also offered lodging in quaint single pane drafty rooms. In the mid-1970s, with four friends, we enjoyed a memorable dinner at a corner round table overlooking Lake Michigan, where we watched a crimson sun sizzle into the lake.

After dinner, we gathered in an area of the lounge to feed our minds and spirits. Some chatted away for hours. Others turned in to sleep in beds that, I think, still included metal coil springs. On the back of the business card, I wrote: “double $18.70, suite $22.90.”

A few years later our friends moved out of state. Two have passed away. In 1979 the Inn gave way to an overlook picnic area and parking lot as part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. We treasure the memories. Our lives flow on, enriched, replete with gratitude and love.

The New Dundee Emporium in Ontario was a favorite destination with friends and family. Today the Emporium (in an 1887 heritage building) offers High Tea, frozen foods and takeaway pizza. And a snazzy website.

Coins, Bundesrepublik Deutschland (1979) (before the Euro). . Memory fails when and where I got them.

Ralph Lauren cologne sample. A freebie from the late fine department stores, Elder Beerman. Fine memories of the store, especially when it was Robertsons and had a restaurant on the second floor.

Blacksmith nail from a visit to San Diego in the late 1970s or early 80s. The friendly, rotund blacksmith reminded me of my dad. I remember one time, more than 75 years ago, visiting the blacksmith shop of a great uncle in Tavistock, Ontario. The odiferous smell of coal smoke and the action of the bellows that fanned the flames remains a misty memory, as does Uncle Johnny’s sooty work clothes and matter-of-fact demeanor.

Canadian pennies (last minted in 2012). Prices are now rounded up or down closest to or farthest from a nickel. Uncertain whether these can still be cashed in.

Arrowhead, maybe a gift from a friend.

Photos: Festival Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. Above: Four Canada geese families, signets in tow. Bluebells and other flowers in Cornwall, UK.

Row 2: Map of Washington DC, 1979. Notebook, with directions to Grand Mere State Park, Michigan. Map reading gadget. Clock. Part of RadioShack Outdoor/Indoor temperature gauge. Lens cleaning tissues. Nikon Coolpix 37000 quick start guide (I had at least three such point and shoot cameras).

On box: RadioShack calculator. Buttons: President Barack Obama 56th Presidential Inauguration January 20, 2009; Cornish Celtic Way; Elkhart Jazz Fest “I Helped Out Along the Way, Thirty Years.”

My father’s Citizen wristwatch, (5-year guarantee) a gift from us six siblings for Dad and Mom’s 50th Wedding Anniversary in 1989. I wore it for about seven years and will do so again on special occasions.

On top of the watch box, a lapel pin ER 50 (Elizabeth Regina, Golden Jubilee, 2002).

Top row: miscellaneous pencil holders, notepaper holder, typewriter eraser (can you believe it? Museum piece?), rounded edge scissors, another award clock, mounting corners for photos, candle, box for the Sekonda watch (2-year guarantee) I’m now wearing (bought it at the airport in Norwich, UK, at the end of a Celtic Pilgrimage).

On the floor: small pouches, eye mask, and a cloth bag for a gift we bought in Sackville, New Brunswick in 2018.

Next step

Now what? I’ll pack some of the items off to the Thrift Store. Send some of the coins to a cousin. Toss quite a bit. Light the candle. Breathe a prayer of gratitude for family, friends, employment years, travel, retirement/re-firement, healing and health, faith walk, memories, 2023, the world, 2024.

Christmas and the week since

Thanks for following some of my meandering thoughts and to-ings and fro-ings in 2023. And enduring memories out of a box.

Happy New Year!

-John