I have negelected my bolg while building a photostream on Flickr, but I'm back. I have recently begun exploring boxes of old letters and photos passed down to me from family members who are no longer with us. They have turned out to be a treasure of family history. Most of this stuff is between 40 and 80 years old. I have been reading letters written to my mother by her old high school friends and mailed before I was born. Some of them congratulate her on her marriage or the birth of her first child, my older sister who died Dec, 7 2010. I am finding pictures that are as much as 100 years old and telegrams that were sent in 1930.
Among the most interesting stuff, I found letters from my Uncle John, Mother's kid brother. He was serving in the Navy during World War II, and he describes his work with electronic devices such as radios, radar and even the ships intercom. One of the letters concerns a trip at the end of the war when he traveled from Japan to Guam and was on his way to Hawaii. He said they were to pass through the Panama Canal and on to Norfolk, Virginia where he expected to be discharged.
I hope to publish copies of the letters here. I will type the in to make them easier to read.