The first time my life has mirrored Kay's -- Part 1 of 2

I work my way, when I can find some time down through the five orf six remaining boxes of unexamined Kay memorabilia I have. I guess "unexamined" isn't quite accurate, as I did transfer the contents of the original vintage and worse-for-wear storage boxes the items were packed in. Neither Kay nor Teeny had thought of long-term storage; I'm sure they packed these things for the move from St. Louis down to New Orleans and then once they'd gotten the living room lamps and the spaghetti strainer in place, then the rest went into the attic or garage to be 'dealt with later." Been failed to deal with that. 

And then the next generation of family was thoughtful enough not to toss the tattered old boxes into a dumpster somewhere when Kay and Teeny's house needed to be emptied before the real estate agent could list it. The stuff was stored in a different attic  until Hurricane Katrina hit, and then everything that could be salvaged from upper floors was put into a storage unit until everyone was settled again. 

So I got the stuff, and immediately transferred it to boxes which were newer and sturdier, and stacked those up in my attic and basement. In that process, I did glance through things quickly but I'm just now really looking at some notes and letters and receipts and so on that I've never had time to un-box and spread out on the dining room table to go through. 

In my own moves, I've jumbled items together into boxes. At first, items which go together are grouped in cartons. But then after a while things go where there is room for them. So I wasn't startled to come across some loose objects in with what was otherwise a boxful of paper ephemera. It's true that a wooden square-headed meat tenderizing mallet isn't an everyday item but it's not extremely strange either. 

But the one I found about eight or ten inches into a large box had a homemade paper tag tied to the handle with a bit of string. The faded ink on the tag (done in fountain pen, I believe) says "Kay's Wonder Mallet for Musical Instrument Repair."

The rest of the story in the next post. . .