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My Dad’s Drawings
I dropped in on one of my five sisters recently, and as I entered her house, she said, “Jim, I’m glad you’re here; I have something for you.” Then, once we entered her living room, she handed me a large yellow envelope approximately 14” by 18.”
“What is this?” I asked.
“They’re pictures of Dad’s high-school basketball and baseball teams. Somehow, I ended up with them after we cleaned out Mom and Dad’s house (approximately nine years earlier), and I found them when I was organizing all my craft stuff just a few weeks ago. I thought you should have them.”
“Yes, definitely. Thank you,” I said as I pulled the photographs out of the envelope and admired them. They were eight-by-ten, black-and-white photographs inserted into a 12-by-14 matboard, suitable for framing. I’m pretty sure the photos were taken for the 1943 yearbook, and I’m guessing that the athletic department had copies made and matted for all of the team members. My dad never got around to framing his team photos, but he obviously cherished them because he held on to them for 71 years until his death in 2014 at age 89. In fact, Dad even kept them after the edges of the matboard became charred after a portion of the house endured a small…
