| THE CHRISTMAS CARD FILES |
| Have you ever kept a diary of your life? Actually, why would anybody want to? These days they call them "BLOGS" -- that's "Web Logs" said really fast -- and people are telling more about their daily lives on the Internet than anybody else would want to know! But, ya know, diaries and such do serve some good purposes -- I've found it quite fascinating to read some things about grand and great relatives and what their lives were like. When I was in the 9th grade, in about 1960, I did keep a daily diary of what I did. Every night before I went to bed, I'd write up a quick synopsis of how things went. It was a bit of a chore, hence I didn't keep it up after a year. But, many years later, I found it to be interesting reading. One thing that struck me was how busy I was, EVEN THEN!! I've always been a busy guy with no time whatsoever, but, even a half century ago I was a guy who spread myself out too thin -- always interested in too many things at once. My dad kept a diary for three years -- from when he came to Denver in 1940 to the night before he was married in 1943. (after that point, he apparently found better things to do at night than write diaries) But it has very interesting information about how he got his first car, where he was living, the jobs he was getting. It was during the World War II years, so living was not the best with gas rationing and men being drafted and so on. Nowadays with the Internet, Blogs, Facebook, most people's lives are being chronicled as we speak! So is mine, in audio/video/website forms -- but one form of keeping a yearly diary for me is sending Christmas Cards. Yep. Every year I write up a summary of the years events & sent them by snail mail to my friends and kinfolk. But, they were a little different than the average "newsy" letter that a lot of people send in Christmas cards -- mine were brief -- and humorous. I was getting a cult following. If I missed sending a card to someone, I'd find out about it, it was almost like missing a magazine subscription! My yearly "epistles" were turning into an artform -- what's that you say? I forgot to send YOU my Christmas card? OK, ya dragged it outta me -- I am putting online all of my old Christmas cards that I've sent out -- pretend that you're a good friend of mine, and that you got these cards in the mailbox -- I'm putting these online as I find them, so the list isn't complete, but here we go with the links: |
