He was a collector of information. One thing he had a lot of were maps. I think he kept every map he ever had. And the maps seemed to draw the most responses from people.
Late the first day, a family arrived as we were closing up. Well, of course we let them in. They spent quite a while in the study. I was outside, so I did not get the full experience, but their young daughter (age 10?) loved maps. If her mother had allowed, she would have taken them all and papered the walls of her room with them.
A young couple was about to move away from California. They found a 1957 map of the state, and other maps of places they had either been to or planned to visit.
Another couple with an adorable baby also had memorable finds. The husband found topographic maps of places he had hiked. Most amazingly, the wife found a large picture map of Poland (I don't think my dad even visited Poland) which had the towns her grandparents were from -- towns that didn't normally even appear on maps.
8 comments:
I love maps, but my brother loves them even more. My parents DID wallpaper his room with maps when he was a kid.
My younger son papered his dorm room wall with maps this year.
I love maps too! And old maps are kind of magical. Sounds like a lot of fun, and that your dad's maps found good homes :-)
Zack and I both love to draw maps.
Another serious map-liker here. And not to knock the 'net, but I think paper maps (like paper geography books!) are gradually become extinct. I hope you kept a few favorites from his stash...
Oh, wow! Those would be phenomenal finds for those people you mentioned.
I still need to find some maps with the appropriate hiking spots for some scrapbook pages. I want to use the maps for the "wallpaper" on the page.
Lovely post! I haven't had much time for blog hopping lately so I'm just catching up. Did your dad pass recently? I'm so sorry for your loss. I know just how hard it is going through your parent's stuff and deciding what to keep and what to sell. I like the idea of meeting your dad virtually through what he left behind... I picture him as sort of a cross between Olivander from Harry Potter and Carl, the old guy from Up.
I love maps too. I don't have any as cool as your dad's but I totally understand the need to collect them. It's nice that they could go to people who have a connection and will appreciate them.
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