I am not a journal writer. My wife is on and off about her journal. I never thought my history would be interesting enough for my progeny. I did however want my children to know something of their past.

When my first son was born I happened to have an old footlocker. For his birth I put in the number one selling book and music CD. I also put in that days local and national newspapers. This was a tradition I carried on every year adding these items. As time went on I also added things from important events, like 9/11. There has also been memorabilia, such as his first shoes and baby outfit. One of my favorite things in his footlocker is a brand new pair of light bulbs. My son was three and wanted to give me a birthday present. He found the light bulbs and crudely wrapped them up to give to me.

I have done the same thing with my second son. In the picture you can see some of the things I have stored in the footlocker, such as his blessing outfit. When taking a picture of his footlocker for this blog, I realized I didn’t get the newspapers for his last birthday. I feel really bad now.

I do not know if my sons will read the books or listen to the CDs. I doubt they will be to their tastes, which is fine. When they are first born there is no way of knowing what they’ll like. My intentions were to show them some history. Let them see what was popular and what shaped their lives. One thing I did make sure to do was have price tags on all of the items. This is another look at history, to see how much things cost.

My first son is an adult now and lives on his own. I stopped adding to his when he turned twenty. He has told me he does not have any interest in the footlocker. I understand that. He is still young. History does not really matter to people at his age. My plan is to hold onto the lockers for both boys, until they have their first child. I will then give them their foot locker, plus a brand new one for each of my grandchildren. I hope this will keep the tradition going of recording a part of history.

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