Surprise, surprise.

I came home Tuesday after a long day of work to find my brother had dropped off a box full of papers, pictures and other things from my dad's.

He hadn't really gone through it yet and I was curious to see what kind of surprises I might find in there. I wouldn't call Dad a hoarder. Okay that's a lie. I would and did call him one. To which he laughed. I guess it seemed perfectly normal to him to have a former office full of old magazines and books, not to mention our old rooms stacked with egg cartons and more boxes, toys of Clayton's and other odds and ends.

I know he thought that he might find a use for all that stuff some day. Or he might want to read that old magazine at some point. But not if he threw it away! (like his daughter might wish for him to do)

So I shouldn't have been surprised that the box contained envelopes full of photos that he no doubt looked at but never ever put in an album or framed. I was more than a bit surprised to find old love letters though.

Imagine that. The old guy kept all those letters. Some are from 1969 when my parents were only dating. Some were as late as 1972. Mom says after that she was able to join him when he was away at work and they didn't need to write letters anymore. They kept me fascinated for a good couple of hours.  I tucked them away in a keep box.

Also in the box was the cowboy hat Ryan and I gave him for Christmas one year. Pristinely clean cowboy hat that is. Turns out he never wore it. New hat for Ryan it is!

There was my wedding invitation (which is in better shape than the one I have left!). Family history books. Lots of pictures I hadn't seen before. Old ones. New ones. Negatives. You name it, it was in there.

Okay Dad, you win. Sometimes you shouldn't purge out all the stuff you own.

After all, when you're gone, your daughter will probably have this uncontrollable urge to save everything with your face on it.

Thanks for thinking of me, old man.