Finding Lost Treasures in a Family Home and Other Lessons

The home I grew up in is in Los Altos, California. My father built our first home across the street when he and my mother first moved to California. We moved into this house when I was nine. My parents lived here until their deaths, three months apart in 2009-2010.

There is a cliche that says "life is what happens to you while you are making other plans." The saying is hackneyed, but true enough, since so many of the things that play a significant role in our lives are the things we never planned for.

This is a story about that and about discovering things that trigger long-buried memories. The article, which I wrote recently, is from this month's Los Altos Town Crier "Home and Garden Magazine". I'm not sure what prompted me to write it. But I never planned moving into and staying in my family home in the first place. Like so many things in my life: it just happened that way and happening that way has inspired me to write about many things. 

 Once you have clicked the link below and read the story, the following photos will mean a lot, I hope. CLICK THIS LINK TO READ "YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN."

I got this autograph from the 40th President of the United States before he became president and before he became Governor of California. It looks like it was written on an old envelope my father pulled out of his pocket when we saw Ronald Reagan in San Francisco that long ago day. 

It turns out there were two presidents in that box. Baseball player Bill White, whose photo I also uncovered, became the first African American president of the National League in 1989. I took that photo at Candlestick Park, a very long time ago.

CLICK THIS LINK TO READ "YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN."

Subscribe to Robin Chapman News