I spent my childhood in McCook, Nebraska, surrounded by golden fields of corn and a vast, open sky. It was a quintessential small town brought to life by the local community college, often the first stepping stone for young men…
If you missed Part Five, click HERE. “July 7, 2012. Dear Denise, I know who you are and have been curious for a long time to know more about this box you describe. Millie Ladner told me about you. We corresponded about…
If you missed Part Four, click HERE. Spending time with Elizabeth’s friends brought me great joy. Besides those I had already met, I also spent time with civil rights activist and educator Nancy Feldman and writer, editor, and Oklahoma poet laureate…
If you missed Part Three, click HERE. I had quit my job. Now what? It was April 1995. Following a brief trip to visit my parents in Arizona, I spent my mornings sitting on the ground in the backyard of our…
If you missed Part Two, click HERE. It was Monday morning, and we all returned to work — Kendra and I to our jobs at a “Big 6” accounting firm where the long hours threatened to mute the magic we’d found…
It was a Saturday when the box and all of its contents came home with me.
That night, Kendra and I sorted through the pages of the album that held the Dear Little Daughter Letter and, using dates on letters and documents pasted inside, managed to put the pages back in order. It alone had so many more stories to share.
Treasures come in many forms. Of all my favorite finds, the “Dear Little Daughter Letter” is precious to me because it changed the trajectory of my life.
Written in the early 1900s, it is but one of many treasures I found in a dirty cardboard box that had been unceremoniously shoved under a dealer’s table at the local flea market.
When I think about the many family traditions I have known and loved, the “turkey dishes” that graced our holiday table are top of mind. And they were so much more than fancy tableware.