JERRY’S BOX
2026 this is
written to memorialize this old wooden box, Jerry’s box. With hope that someone someday will be
interested and keep this.
I’m just an old
wooden box to anyone who sees me, nothing special, most would think junk. If
that’s what you think you are so wrong. If I could talk, I could tell you about
my life , how I have been rescued from discard a couple times to still be here,
and how I was very particularly hand crafted by a skilled carpenter for his
young grandson for the boy’s 5th or 6th Christmas in
1942-43. The boy has been gone since
December 2020 and the grandfather long before that in 1978. Here is my story. When you open me a copy of
my tale is inside with a few select photos.
There are no photos of that Christmas.
Back then few photos were taken, it was an arduous process and involved
film, getting it developed into photos, primarily black and white, and an
expensive process.
This photo is the boy, Jerry Morrison in 1941, about 4 years old swinging happily on the farm. Jerry’s parents were divorced and his mother moved back to La Crescent to live with her parents with Jerry and his sister Diane.
But his
paternal grandparents, Gerald W Morrison Sr and Emma, remained part of the
children’s lives. They lived on Liberty
St. in La Crosse WI.
Gerald Sr was a
skilled carpenter and handmade Jerry’s box with detail and care for Christmas. Dimensions
at 24 ½ inches length, 11 inches width and an
inside full depth of 6 inches. While every carpenter had a tool box, this for
his grandson would hold his toys, his possessions and was expected to last a
long time. Maybe one day it would hold tools.
Jerry did not
receive many Christmas presents. Money
was tight but the wooden box thrilled him, something of his very own. To him it was absolutely grand. Someone
would paint it years later on, but back in its day it was just plain lovely
wood. It was a place he could keep
things, all his. He did not have to
share it.
This photo is from 1944 on Jerry’s 7th birthday. Standing behind Jerry is Gerald Sr., next to him Effie and Frank Morrison, great grandparents. Diane is in front of Effie.
Jerry’s world
was tossed upside down in 1950 when his mother decided she, Jerry and Diane, would
leave and go to California where Lyman who would be her 2nd husband
was working. Jerry was devastated. The box did not go with them. It was left behind.
He did not get on well and returned to La
Crescent on his own. It was not easy and
he decided to join the Air Force in 1954.
Lots of water under and around the bridges and life went on. Over the years after he married Pat they
would come back to La Crescent and visit his cousins and aunts. They were living in northern California where
they always thought they’d stay until 2004 when Jerry decided California was
going downhill. They decided to move to La Crescent anticipating 2005 when Pat
retired. For various reasons including
that his mother now a widow who did not live with them but had been moved up
north depended on them and was willing to move back home, so La Crescent was
the choice. Jerry and Pat bought their
La Crescent home in 2004 and moved finally fully in 2005. The boy was back where he’d grown up and life
was good.
One day in 2005
visiting with Milo, his cousin, surviving spouse of his late cousin Jeanette,
they were out in Milo’s garage. There
shoved back on a shelf Jerry spotted something that rang a bell. A wooden box, hinges on the sides. Could it be?
Milo grinned and pulled it down, said, “look familiar?” Milo recalled how Jeanette had saved it when
the old house was being demolished and had said it had once belonged to
Jerry. It had long been forgotten
about. Although it was painted the boy
inside him knew it was his own box, there in front of him, 55 years later. Now it was a treasure! He proudly took it home, bragged to Pat and
put it down in his own shop, his mancave.
There it spent the rest of time. In 2020 Jerry became ill and in what
would be his last months, his sister Barbara was visiting to help out. She brought the box into the house. It went downstairs where it lived and stays.
Pat hoped maybe
someday someone would want it and want to know about how it was made and what
it had meant to that boy. But as of this
writing no one is interested. The
treasures we have are but useless junk to others today.
I hope whoever
finds me saves me from the burn pile and finds a place for me, perhaps another
child might be as thrilled as the boy, Jerry.
I still have my latches, hinges and inside drawer. I was built to last. And oh, if I could talk……
Barb and Marty
