Originally Posted by geodeticman.5
Thank you Patti, for the thoughtful - in more than one way- response. While this thread is intended to be essentially game play on lyrics, I personally enjoy when I hear anecdotal and familial stores, etc from the players. It adds a very nice human touch, because I came very close to automating virtually every part of it, and stopped, not only when my 'excessively colorful' format grew very hard to read *guilty* lol.... , but when it was so close to simply invoking it, feeding it the game player's input, and letting it spit out the response, it started to no longer feel as 'human' as I' enjoy it being - So I changed it to meet many criteria, but maybe most importantly - it made it ffel more human again ! Everyone knows I write comically-long-winded yarns , anecdores, memories, too often to excess !
Sometimes, if I pour out a heartfelt memory, or something hard to write about (pleae notice the Mountaineering story of mine above) in order to tun it into a humorous touch here and there, it does great help to me, and I try to make it compelling and interesting to read, without any fabrication or stretching the truth at all, it in turn becomes special when a thoughtful reply like yours and others comes in.
I'm sorry to hear of the passing of you father. I enjoyed reading the similarities you found in that drawer - made me remember the two pocket watches of my grandfather's in that drawer too!. I never met him, as when he passed, he was 1,500 miles away, and only 56. I was only about 6 months old. I'd never have remembered anyway if he did. Thus making that definative drawer of his so fascinating to me - my Dad's , Dad wow ! I could see from the content where many of my father's endearing proclivities cam from , too !
Holding a handful of 'pocket items every day at work' of my Grandfather's, it was also almost like meeting him.
Certainly the drawer does not define the man, but the contents from my experience, DO tell a definative PART of a man's interests, or how he fed his family, or what he enjoyed as hobbies, but most often, I find the things we spoke of, pocket knives, pocket watches, occassional road maps, business cards by the dozens - which tend to be things a man would put on the bureau-top mini 'valet' box where he'd put his wallet, main watch, pocket change, a few business cards, glases etc., but when that little 6" x 12" "valet" over-flowed, the overflow went in his desk drawer top center.
This is only from my experience looking when allowed to, family drawer's, often after they pass away making it all the more ....connecting.
Not surprisingly, as you'll see in my CP page public profile, I collect the things we spoke of finding ! I collect pocket knives, pocket watches, and maps ! Surprise ! And I was just this evening, talking briefly with my mother, trying to calm her over a frightening test she has tomorrow at the doctor's, she mentioned to me that Dad's desk was found finally in a warehouse of a moving company, that was from when they moved from their perched mountain ridege-top home, down to the Town of Longmont, in the flatlands, close to mdecial care of theirs and the hospital.
Somehow the desk was missing from the mover, and they finally 'found it' - 6 years later ?? Well I was elated - because all the type of things we spoke of. you and I, were of course in his center drawer, too, plus work-related trinkets from the space program - NASA-. And....as unlikely as this sounds, Dad told me about 9 years ago, before he lost the ability to talk, he said "son. when I die, be ABSOLUTELY sure to look in the lower right bottom drawer; its locked, and the keys I keep here". The keys got lost in the move, but I am finally this coming weekend going to solve the mystery of what is in the drawer, likely paper work for his estate holddings etc, insurance, but then again, his work was highly classified, and he could not speak of many things in it, when 1/2- dollar rockets were launched with $300K - $400,000 payloads - like Voyageur, Viking, Mariner etc interplanetary spaceraft, and no doubt -secret- payloads such as the occassional defense platforms for orbit- and I am sure many that were said to NOT have been launched MAY have been, who knows ?
Decisions were in the Nations defense interest - you recall Star-WARS - the plat form to orbit ? Cancelled - international relations.... but did it go up ? These and more likely simple things will be found this weekend ! I love a treasure map trail, even as an adult, amounting to simply a desk finally found ! Its better than the movies ! And I idolized my Dad so much, it will be like hollding things in my hand that he did in his ! Well, as I so frequently talk in this thread onnly - as most often I only have time to process game submissions, Its my only outlet for daily anecdotes, and more substantive stories of mine that I hope are of interest to the players. I rarely hear back on them, and so often I pour my heart out in them, its a real treasure to have you read what you did and respond ! THANK YOU. And - if you want a hair-raising read - read the falling through the snowfield mountaineering story.
There are some laughs that I never could express that way until lately !
Thanks again Patti- and I enjoyed immensely reading your memories and memorbilia !
|