Today I had my late step-grandmother Poochie's metal box of "goodies" to keep me occupied. It had lots of boring stuff in it like her old drivers licenses, credit cards, life insurance policies and the title to her 2014 Ford Fusion. However, it also contained this gem(click for a bigger view); my mom evidently threw out her copy, although she could still identify EVERY person in the picture, as well as inform me whether that classmate was still alive or not. And if I wanted to know who that person married, if s/he had a drink problem, how their kids turned out, what they did for a living, or anything else about him/her, she could tell me that too! I almost dragged out my 3rd grade photo to test myself, but then I chickened out...
I spotted Mom right away next to the teacher, but had a bit of an issue finding Poochie at first. In a mining town full of Eastern Europeans and Italians, Poochie stood out with her blond hair. She came from French-Canadian and German farming stock, and is the little non-black haired girl holding the class sign. Although her ancestors aren't related to me, I was fascinated by a newspaper clipping about the death of her maternal grandfather. Are any of you old enough to remember when newspapers(especially small town ones) printed every detail and read more like a gossip rag? Anyway, according to the article, Poochie's farmer grandfather (Ed Koch) fell into a drainage ditch on his farm at the age of 82. They lived in a beautiful rural area near Cle Elum called the Teanaway. His wife tried to pull him out, but couldn't. So, she tied him to a log with her apron so he wouldn't drift farther, and ran off to fetch the neighbor. When they returned, Ed had already died of a heart attack. It might seem strange, but I want to keep the article. They aren't even my relatives!
There were also some valuable items in the box. I'm not as interested in coins or gold as I am in old photos and newspaper articles, but this 1975 1 ounce gold Krugerrand is worth a chunk of change.
