Tags
1970s, aerograms, letter writing, memories, mom, old boyfriends, organizing, travel
I am a Capricorn through suns and moons and everything in between. I read once that Capricorns are organized, thorough, sure-footed in putting all the ducks in a row. I believed it all. Problem is, I’m not very good at it. But I always seem to forget that and do it anyway. So, when faced with this box of old memories, I charged forward and began to organize.
First, assign a different color file for each location: Red: Dubrovnik, White: Amalfi, Purple: Loutraki etc. I took a bold black pen and wrote at the top of each file the location and the dates I was there. They looked good. It brought back my days of inefficient but well-meant secretarial work. The files were ready. Now to open the box.
Letters, Lots and Lots of Letters
I decided to begin the unveiling of my memories by counting all the letters. This was indeed procrastination. There were over 100. I was impressed. I separated them by location and them by stationery: aerograms in one pile, tissue-thin over-sized paper in the other. I loved the aerograms. I used them faithfully except in Morocco and Yugoslavia (former) which for some obscure reasons of their own didn’t have them in the 1970s. France’s were blue, Italy’s a khaki green, Spain’s grey to offset the red and gold trim. Seeing them reminded me of a boyfriend I had once who wrote me letters with a bold, black ink pen on American-blue aerograms. I called him my black-and-blue lover first for the aerograms later for what he did to my heart. Finally, I slipped them into their proper folders. I’d read them later.
See, Nancy, I am doing something with these.
Annie's Odyssey 