News

I have been going through papers and other items in my parents’ house now that they are both gone. There are things that I have found that I had heard about but never saw and other things that I did not even know about. One of the problems is trying to figure out who is in old photos. It would have been more productive if I had gone through the photos while my mother was still alive. My suggestion is that if you have elderly parents it would be a smart idea to ask them if you can go through their photos with them. I am also very impressed by how organized my mother was even in her nineties. I do not know what happened to me. I clearly did not inherit her organizational skills. It is also interesting to see what they saved. People save what they think is important to keep.

Beth and I have been spending countless hours during the past month cleaning out my parents’ house to get it ready to be sold. I have a few takeaways. Although I have been able to donate many items, some useful items had to be thrown away because of a lack of interest.

Recently, there were many significant events that dominated the news. One story was about the hostage deal which brought home American hostages from Russia. Another was Trump’s appearance before a Black journalists’ organization that some called a dumpster fire, and Trump supporters thought that Trump was at his finest. However, I, like many, was fixated on whom Kamala Harris would select as her running mate.

The parents of hostage Hersh Goldberg Polin were allowed to speak at the Democratic National Convention. When they went out to speak, the delegates started chanting “Bring them home!” which caused his mother to put her head down and cry incessantly. She later explained that she and her husband were worried about what type of reception they would receive and were overwhelmed by the outpouring of support.

Many people need deadlines to do things that take a lot of effort or are time-consuming. I can identify with them, having had to spend so much time and effort clearing out my parents’ house. This includes going through old papers.  It is amazing what you find in places you never would have looked, like behind a drawer. If I had not taken the drawers out of my old desk, I never would have found the papers that had fallen and were lodged behind the drawer. I found things I thought I had lost and items I never remembered having.

One of the stories my mother used to like to tell me about was her trip to Florida when she was single. In looking through her papers, I found that she had taken the trip in January 1950. Among the mementos, there was a program from Tropical Park, a racetrack in Coral Gables that was in existence from 1931 until 1972, and another program from Dog Racing in Miami Beach which had racing from 1928 until 1980. She kept a pamphlet from Jai Alai Biscayne Fronton, which is now called Casino Miami, and a card from Ned Schuyler’s Beachcomber with the headliners Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. It is unclear whether this place is still in existence. It may now be an art deco hotel that opened in 1937.