Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Sending the Rover Boys home to Indiana

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA         I’m still liquidating most of my library on Amazon.com, shipping a book or two every day.

I dragged yet another box of books out of the garage this afternoon and listed all but one – this 1914 edition of The Rover Boys in Alaska. It’s in kind of rough condition. The first couple of pages have come adrift from the binding, but otherwise it’s in reasonable shape for a kid’s book that’s almost 100 years old.

Inside the front cover, I found the inscription: To John Edward Flora.roberboysinalaska

That’s my dad’s older brother. Uncle John, who was my favorite uncle, grew up on a farm near Cutler, Ind. He went to DePauw University and became a teacher and lived and worked most of his life in the Garrett, Ind., school system. He and his wife Jean retired to Leesburg, Fla. He died several years ago of cancer, but his two sons survive. I’m going to pack it up gently and send it to the younger son who lives in Fishers, Ind.

It just wouldn’t be right to let it go to a stranger when it might be valued by my cousin and his family.


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