Ann's Words

While sorting through my mother, Grace Smuin Laemmlen’s papers, I found these 2 pages of notes about her mother, Ruby.   Ruby was born  6 January 1898 and she died on 19 February 1959, a few weeks after I was born.  She and her husband, Franklin, lived in San Gabriel, Los Angeles County, California.  From all I know about my Grandmother, she was a lovely lady.

THINGS I LEARNED FROM MY MOTHER (RUBY SMUIN)

Always sweep the outside clean before guests arrive.

Be ready to serve guests a drink. Say “would you like lemonade or grape juice?” (Not just “would you like a drink?” Make it “fancy,” with a mint leaf or twist of lemon or cherry.

Always have plenty of food! Serve hot things HOT. Serve cold things COLD.

Use cloth napkins for holidays or special parties.

Have fresh flowers (from own garden).

Fresh towels in the bathroom (“company ones”).

Table set and beautiful before guests arrive. Appropriate centerpiece, place cards (name cards), homemade.

Have homemade bread or rolls in the oven when guests arrive (house should smell wonderful).

Be dressed and ready for company–be relaxed.

Have time to be with your guests.

Nuts and candies available.

Special treats for young children.

Have something to send home with guests (part of dinner or dessert).

Use best dinner wear.

Canning

Garden

I remember the day long ago in my single life when I bought this large filing cabinet.  I think I paid more than $400 for it and had it delivered to my apartment in Old Farm, Salt Lake City.  I felt like I had arrived.  I was living in a world of paper and publishing.  I’d purchased my first PC computer in 1987 after returning from living in Nigeria.  I had a dot matrix printer, and now I had a place to store the things I saved and printed.

Each of the 4 drawers in this file cabinet had 3 banks of hanging files, which became home to the important things in my life.  I’d kept notes from every BYU class and every MTC training.  I had all of my important documents and the original drafts of my Article of Faith Books.  I had copies of lessons taught and talks given.  Later the drawers filled with my family history projects from BYU classes–census surveys, location research, pages and pages of pedigree charts and family group sheets.  In those days, we kept paper records and I filed them faithfully.

I found every ward newsletter I created for the Millcreek 2nd Ward where I lived before getting married in 1990.  I had folders filled with clip art, headings and borders.  In those days, I typed columns, then cut and taped them to a master sheet, adding clipped images and seasonal decorations.  It was all manually literally cut and pasted.   Then I took my master pages to a copy center for printing.

In my file purging, it was hard to part with these newsletters that I had so painstakingly created more than 38 years ago.  Today I bid them all farewell.

I also purged the drawers I filled with the kids’ school papers, keeping only the most important.  I worked all day, living in the past with this evidence of a life lived long ago.

I also sorted through the 3 drawers I’ve kept of the kids’ school papers and programs and grades and treasures.  I thinned them down about half for now.  I couldn’t part with everything.  I don’t need multiple copies of the basketball programs we created for Adam, or every letter from the school.  I’ll save the best, scan what I can, and then purge again some day.

I am carefully packing away things that need to be kept or digitized before parting with them.  The file cabinet is being emptied of more than half of its contents.  My life is passing before my eyes.  I just can’t keep it all anymore.

John is doing the same in his office.  Purging.  Purging.  Purging.  Old documents and statements and records.  Wow, we have a lot of paper.

We’ve also gone through all of the framed things in our home to thin them out.  We are taking loads to Deseret Industries every week.

We have filled our recycle bin 3 times in the last few weeks.  It has been a big job.  We are determined not to leave this job for those who follow us.  We’ve got to thin things out!

The historian in me is not happy, but reality is yelling in my face.  No one else will care about my treasures and things I’ve saved through the years.  I am keeping some important things to digitize so I can share what’s important in places like my Family Search Memories, where it can be found. That will be another big job to tackle in my retirement years.  For now, it’s FAREWELL to the rest.