ALL HAIL THE SHREDDER!!!
We bought a shredder today. A shredder is one of the best ways to ensure that a writer's worst old writing will never fall into the wrong hands and come back to haunt/embarrass them one day. Sure, we have a fireplace, but that would be paranoid overkill, right? (Hmm...I'm sure the shredded confetti would burn quickly... ;)
I went through an old filing cabinet this afternoon, shredding stuff. Man, the memories.
LETTERS
Old letters from my best friend up north (sent after I moved to Texas)
Old letters from my sister
A letter from Dicky Barrett, from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
A letter from Jim Arhelger, drummer for Bim Skala Bim
A couple letters fom Evan Dorkin (complete with "Milk and Cheese stick figures")
E-mail from Kyle Baker...to Cynthia
Letters from other comic book people: Terry Moore, Dave Sim, and a lotta indie creators long forgotten
Personal Comic Book Stuff (Mostly of interest to mfelps
Old Second Rate Heroes scripts
Stickman without Arms stuff
Toledo Tuxedo stuff
Shadow Stalker copies
Ninjas for Hire scripts and art, including the panel that finally stopped Tim
Old Mockingbird contracts
A cartoon drawing of mfelps as a werewolf
The "Dark and Lovely" convention comic
The script for Tech City #2
Miscellaneous
Ray Bradbbury's autograph, from the night I met him and briefly chatted about growing up in northern Illinois (he grew up a couple towns over from my hometown)
There were a couple things that jumped out at me, too--taking me off guard:
My father's living will, signed two days before he died. The living will itself didn't hurt, but seeing his signature...that got me. My father had cool handwriting and I used to hope that one day I could have "Gronlund" look as cool as his "Gronlund" in my own signature.
The "Gronlund" on the living will was illegible, showing just how sapped he was near death. I also found his driver license, the picture of my father looking like a shell of the man I always looked up to, even when he was drunk and setting himself on fire (hell, especially when he was drunk and setting himself on fire!!!).
I found a letter/essay my sister wrote about the night she and I scattered our father's ashes into Montrose Harbor, in Chicago. It's strange...my sister's daughter recently moved down to Texas and got most of my sister's ashes from my mother so she could head north and finally scatter my sister's remains (my mother has a small bit for her to scatter one day, getting her bit of closure). Just kind of weird finding something my sister wrote about scattering Dad when she was recently scattered herself.
Letters from my sister...I never realized how many old letters my sister sent me. I'll have to go back and read them all, but just skimming them, there's some funny stuff in them, and some stuff that's just devestating to read in hindsight.
I found another cool thing in all the piles: "The Siren's Call," a Sandman script mfelps wrote and gave me as a birthday present one year he was broke (it still goes down as one of the coolest gifts ever!) Most of my immediate family is gone, but reading something that one of my best friends ever wrote for me reminds me that family comes in all shapes and sizes...
I went through an old filing cabinet this afternoon, shredding stuff. Man, the memories.
LETTERS
Old letters from my best friend up north (sent after I moved to Texas)
Old letters from my sister
A letter from Dicky Barrett, from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
A letter from Jim Arhelger, drummer for Bim Skala Bim
A couple letters fom Evan Dorkin (complete with "Milk and Cheese stick figures")
E-mail from Kyle Baker...to Cynthia
Letters from other comic book people: Terry Moore, Dave Sim, and a lotta indie creators long forgotten
Personal Comic Book Stuff (Mostly of interest to mfelps
Old Second Rate Heroes scripts
Stickman without Arms stuff
Toledo Tuxedo stuff
Shadow Stalker copies
Ninjas for Hire scripts and art, including the panel that finally stopped Tim
Old Mockingbird contracts
A cartoon drawing of mfelps as a werewolf
The "Dark and Lovely" convention comic
The script for Tech City #2
Miscellaneous
Ray Bradbbury's autograph, from the night I met him and briefly chatted about growing up in northern Illinois (he grew up a couple towns over from my hometown)
There were a couple things that jumped out at me, too--taking me off guard:
My father's living will, signed two days before he died. The living will itself didn't hurt, but seeing his signature...that got me. My father had cool handwriting and I used to hope that one day I could have "Gronlund" look as cool as his "Gronlund" in my own signature.
The "Gronlund" on the living will was illegible, showing just how sapped he was near death. I also found his driver license, the picture of my father looking like a shell of the man I always looked up to, even when he was drunk and setting himself on fire (hell, especially when he was drunk and setting himself on fire!!!).
I found a letter/essay my sister wrote about the night she and I scattered our father's ashes into Montrose Harbor, in Chicago. It's strange...my sister's daughter recently moved down to Texas and got most of my sister's ashes from my mother so she could head north and finally scatter my sister's remains (my mother has a small bit for her to scatter one day, getting her bit of closure). Just kind of weird finding something my sister wrote about scattering Dad when she was recently scattered herself.
Letters from my sister...I never realized how many old letters my sister sent me. I'll have to go back and read them all, but just skimming them, there's some funny stuff in them, and some stuff that's just devestating to read in hindsight.
I found another cool thing in all the piles: "The Siren's Call," a Sandman script mfelps wrote and gave me as a birthday present one year he was broke (it still goes down as one of the coolest gifts ever!) Most of my immediate family is gone, but reading something that one of my best friends ever wrote for me reminds me that family comes in all shapes and sizes...