My treasure

    This week my family took a trip to Freeport, Maine. We visited my mom at a hospital in Portland and then continued North for a night away.  We decided on our way home to visit a few sites.
     Our first stop was Wilbur's Chocolate. As a candymaker, Matt is always interested in seeing products from other places and seeing what other places are doing. Ironically, we ended up walking in right as a tour was supposed to start. So, we paid the $3 and went on the guided tour of their chocolate making "factory,"  We also got to meet the owner, who seemed like a really nice guy. He was making caramel that would be later covered in chocolate. The tour was very short, but informative. They also gave out a few samples. (I would highly recommend their chocolate covered blueberriesl not the blue ones, the normal chocolate covered ones.)    A really nice touch is that they give you a goodie bag at the end of the tour. They were quite generous. We definitely took home more than the $12 of "product." Then we went to the center. 
      We avoided L.L Bean since I knew I wouldn't be buying anything that day, but would be tempted to!    My mom asked me to stop by The Mangy Moose .We had a lot of fun exploring the store and I bought some really pretty notecards. We also visited Wicked Whoopies. I had a classic whoopie pie and the boys each got a mint one. They were delicious. We ate them on our drive home. Then, we ate lunch at a "highly recommended and reasonibly priced" sub/pizza place. It was alright. The pizza slices were huge but I was not a fan of the "toasty" I ordered.
       Here's the most exciting part, at least for me. #nerdproblems.
      We stopped a used bookstore that also advertised old postcards. When we walked in, Matt pointed out a giant bookshelf filled with boxes of postcards- written/unwritten, mostly older. I picked one for my pal Ashley (oops, hope I didn't ruin the surprise), one creepy looking girl for me and one for my son's teacher, who just did a postcard project with the kids. I also bought an antique pamphlet about Massachusetts.   I could've stayed all day going through the postcards. If I was super organized and had  lot of room in our apartment, I would buy a lot and horde  keep them for myself. It was overhwhelming and tempting to be surrounded by all of the ephemera and postcards. I DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT THE BOOKS, which were stacked from floor to ceiling. I even let Tim and David  go explore without asking where they would be. lol. Oh my goodness.   I pulled myself away and paid for my purchases.  Then, I waited for Matt and the boys. I figured that Tim was probably building a fort out of books and planning a way to live in this house forever. Despite the fact that I can get impatient when I'm ready to leave somewhere, I was super gracious that my family has always been willing to put up with my postcard/penpalling addiction. Then, I turned toward the door and noticed something stacked on the top of a bookshelf. Here's what it was (I removed the addresses):

    It is a stack of letters from 1945 from 3 brothers in the Navy. (There was only 1 letter from 1 of the brothers). The other 2 were enlisted in the Navy. Rick wrote home frequently and Bill was pretty prolific, writing almost every day. The letters were sent to their parents and younger sister. On the back of some of the envelopes were some questions that their mom, I assume, wanted to ask them in her next letters. These are guys I would've gotten along really well with, especially Bill.
      When I saw them at the store, I was immediately saddened that these weren't with their family but the bookshop owner explained that he gets a lot of stuff from estate sales. I knew I would find them fascinating. I spent about 4 hours reading them yesterday. (I felt like Nina Sankovitch must've when she was opening the trunk full of letters in Signed, Sealed, Delivered.) I spent all day today researching the information in the letters in an attempt to find the families. I think I found them. I sent a few Facebook messages today but I think they're all sent to the dreaded "other messages" folder. I even sent 2 of them a friend request in hopes that they would see my message if they accepted.  I think I even found the little sister. Can you imagine re-reading a letter you got 73 years ago from a family member who is no longer living?
         I will write more in a later post. I did a lot of thinking about some of the things I read and might like to share.