Memoir Ordering

Doral Pilling's handwriting
on his high school year book
The Coyote

Today Bonnie Wyora said that her day would be dedicated to reading from the memoirs  I continue to write (1965-present).  Last week she instructed me to move them to a safe place in the house, one with no potential fire hazard.  I have moved them out of the kitchen and now most of them are collected on a shelf in my bedroom.  I took them down for her to read, arranged them by year and in doing so, I came across other books, ... essays, journals, boxes of treasures and file folders that I have collected over the years.
 
So I had two sections: my memoirs and other precious documents which I have loosely categorized.  In making that list I could feel a panic attack coming on.  How can I ever get these papers organized, given that I have been collecting them for years, but making no sense of them in terms of what they represent, who has written them, or why I would save them. All of that is in my mind, but no where on paper.
Thus, for example, yesterday’s blog post on notes given to me by Elsworth about Earl Hurst Scoville.  I saw it, I took some time to retype it, given Stacie Wardle Mangum had invited me to a Scoville Cousin Party this winter, and I thought – even if I didn’t get to the party, I could send my cousins good wishes in the form of sharing the stories Elsworth told me.

But now to return to today’s project.  I haven’t turned my mind towards taking care of these papers because of the seeming enormity of the task. Here is a laundry list of what they represent:

1.      Floral Cards from Wyora’s funeral

2.      Geological Survey Memoir 153k No 134 Banff Area, Alberta – Stamped “Moose Oils Limited”

3.      The Coyote, Published by Senior class of Shelby High School

4.      Planning Rebecca’s Wedding

5.      Love Letters from Doral to Wyora Dec 14, 1938 – May 9, 1938.

6.      The Kelvin Johnson’s Book of Remembrance. – blessings from 1986 to 1989.

7.     Pilling Secrets – Photocopies of letters from Wyora, mostly to her kids – 1932 to 1968.

9.      Christopher Layton and ZCMI by Noel R Barton (2 copies)

10.   Amanda Penrod

11.   Doral’s life story – first draft (3 copies)

12.   Wyora’s life story – 3 copies

13.   Box of letters and photos to be sorted – Dorals, Wyoras, etc.

14.   Legal size file folder of letters to be sorted.

15.   Harriet Temperance Utley Carter: 1835-1925 plus essay entitled Early Alberta History: Mormon Women’s Voices by Bonnie Wyora Johnson

16.   Mission Diary of R.A. Pilling, 200 pg. Handwritten. 

17.   Book of Applications for Moose Dome Royalty Trust Certificate. Forward iin the book contains “The Story of Moose Dome”.

18.   Short Autobiographies and Biographies:

- James Fisher

- Richard A. Pilling

- R.W. Pilling

- Wyora’s patriarchal blessing

-  Richard Pilling

19.   Arta’s baby book.

20.   Bugle 1958 (Crescent Heights High School Year Book)

21.   Wedding Book

Now you can see the broad problem – some of the papers are personal, some belong to the larger family audience.  I want to make it my business to order this information and will probably get to the task if Bonnie Wyora stays a few more days and I continue to feel her gentle push to take this task right to the bank.  Getting up Elsworth's short memoirs on his father was a good first step.

Arta