T.

Another day spent in the depths of the Brandon Street
house, sifting through box after box. Advice: throw
stuff away. Do it now. Do not leave it for your heirs.
I know I should've done this a few years ago, but just
couldn't. I'd go down there and look at the piles and piles
of boxes and feel defeated, before even opening a single
box. So. My recycling bin is full and N.'s car is full of
stuff for Goodwill. Yay! (Unfortunately it still looks
like nothing has changed. Damn. But I know it has.)

And yet, in the chaos: treasures. A stamp album
from the fifties or sixties (Around! The! World!)
In this album I learned about San Marino,
a completely landlocked country in the Appenine
Mountains of Italy: San Marino claims to be the oldest
constitutional republic in the world....it was founded
on 3 September 301 by Marinus of Rab, a Christian stonemason
fleeing the religious persecution of Roman Emperor Diocletian.
San Marino's constitution, dating back to 1600, is the world's
oldest written constitution still in effect. (Wikipedia.)
I don't know who this stamp album belonged to,
but I think it's something M. picked up somewhere
and stashed away.

I also found a packet of correspondence between
Mr. Elmer Miller of Seattle and Miss C.V. Garmon
of Aberdeen, Washington, dating from the early 1920's.
Page after page of stylized penmanship, detailing their
pre-marriage longings for each other, including his
distaste for her meddling mother. Who are/were these people?
And why were they in my basement?