So, my Dad gave me my Mom's scrapbooks.....

...these tragic beauties are my mom's scrapbooks. They start when she is in Junior High and go until after High School Graduation and when she went into the Air Force. (basically, she had to...more on that later....)

See....she was scrappin' back in the mid to late 50's and early 60's......pretty cool!!


I totally cracked up when I saw this.....

I found this to be hilarious! I used to do stuff like this in Junior High!!! Jamie just had a post about her old scrapbook like a few weeks ago!! So, check this out Jamie!!!

I love it that it's all her friends!!!! Really, how cool is this?!

(and how sad is it that the tape is all messed up, yellowed and not holding half of this down.........COMPLETE AND TOTAL PROOF OF WHY I SCRAPBOOK USING 100% ARCHIVAL SAFE PRODUCTS!!!!!!!!)



So, this is how I found out that my mom had appendicitis and had her appendix removed while in high school. I had no idea.......

Don't ya just love all these "retro" cards?!?!


And check this out.....my mom used to read horoscopes! Hilarious!!! Anyone have Oct. 9 as their b-day? If so, this is for you.......

I just find this so hilarious, because when I was growing up, horoscopes were regarded as a waste of time to my mother...... Just a "they are a bunch of bull" feeling, not a I used to read my horoscope and they are never accurate.... Know what I mean?


And the big shocker found in the Senior Year Scrapbook..............

My mom's Senior report card.

Believe you me, I've NEVER seen this before!

And I was SHOCKED!!!! My mom is a very intelligent woman, who was very successful in EVERYTHING she ever did. She is really smart. And I was so surprised to see these kinds of grades from her. For goodness sake, she has an "F" and a bunch of "D's" on this thing!!

If my brother and I even attempted that, we'd be dead!

I can only assume that the reason for this is two-fold.

Number 1 - boys. I can tell by the scrapbook, that my mom had a bunch of boyfriends taking her out. (She saved about 20 Dairy Queen napkins from her dates....with the name of the boy she went out with in the scrapbook!)

And she had at least one serious boyfriend, named Denny. He's all over the scrapbook for many pages! And his is one of the very few pics in the book.
(and the reason for this is because I know there was NO WAY my mother owned a camera...there was no way they could have afforded it...)

Reason #2 - I can only assume these grades were due to how difficult things were for my mother. She really had a hard life. And I promise to blog about that soon.


I thought these things were cool......

(article from the local paper in Minnesota. And I believe Marsha was her best friend.) My mom's notes on the page......

(proof of why JOURNALING is SO IMPORTANT!!!!)



And, my mom's orders for the Air Force.......it's looks like jibberish to me, but going into the Air Force changed her life forever.

(the woman saved everything.....good grief, this is a sugar packet, a toothpick and her plane ticket for her ride from Minnesota to Texas for basic training.)


So, the reason my mom had to go into the Air Force....

Well, when my mom graduated from high school, she had dreams of going to college. The dream of college by a girl of her background was like the holy grail. (and back then, even with those grades....you could still easily get into college....)

So, my mom went to work the Summer after Graduation at a resort in Minnesota called Esslinger's Resort. (I tried to find some information about this...but, alas, I think it is either out of business now or at least going by another name.) She worked as a maid, cleaning rooms and doing the laundry. At the end of each week when she received her paycheck, she sent it home to her mother for saving.

Well, apparently, my grandma was an alcoholic and when my mother returned home at the end of the summer, there was no money left for my mother to go to college. Isn't that horrible? (obviously, I knew none of this until I was an adult. My grandma was actually killed in a hospital negligence accident in December of 1978......but until then, I had enjoyed a close relationship, albeit a long-distance relationship, with her and my mother spoke only of the positive things of my grandma.)

So, my mom had a choice to make. And I'm not exactly sure how or why, but the decision was made for her to join the Air Force. I think it may have had to do with the fact her friend Marsha was going, but I am not sure about this. Either way, it was obvious she needed to have something to do with her life after basically being betrayed by her mother. Although, I never really got that she felt that way, even though, that's basically what happened. It's really such a sad, sad story.


And that's just a small part of the entire story.....