Part of my goals
for this new year is/was de-cluttering as much as possible. Fortunately for me,
I am not a pack-rat because clutter makes me uncomfortable anyway…but my DH
kinda is (we’re not going to discuss his workshop…it’s the stuff of nightmares)
so I was cleaning out my computer room in order to comply with this objective.
You know the drill….if it’s not needed and not useful, it shouldn’t stay (my
shredder has gotten quite the workout).
So what did I find? The most amazing
things. I have three old binders I hadn’t opened in a long time (except to
dust). They are front and center on one of the shelves to my left along with
research and writing oriented books. And they were full. Page after page of my
neat penmanship (I went to Catholic school when learning penmanship was a
required course) or closely written print filled with facts and figures on
white college-ruled loose leaf paper. There are pages and pages I copied from
books I found on dress for both sexes from the Civil War to the turn of the
century as well as copies of steamboats and trains and sailing ships. There
were maps, too. And brochures from the Chamber of Commerce of over a dozen
cities around the country, especially those that are historical in nature, like
Natchez and Sacramento
and San Francisco
What’s amazing about this? It was all
gathered before I was spoiled by the Internet when one had to go to the library
in order to learn about the history of military camps in Arizona ,
the history of ranching in Texas or the
settling of Galveston
Now, if I want to know something, some
fact that is crucial to the story I’m writing, I hop on Google or Bing or one
of the more than a dozen websites that cater to history lovers. After looking
through all this work, all these details about times and places I find
fascinating, in the end, I was unable (and unwilling) to toss my binders. They’ll
stay on my shelf until I’m ready for another stroll down memory lane.
Happy
Marie
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