A Trunkfull of Memories

"Well, what do we have here?" Buck laughed looking at the twins as they came down the stairs wearing clothing many sizes too large for their little bodies.

"Look what we found Grandpa!" chirped Tyler wearing Buck's old vest and hat.

"I'm all pretty just like Gramma in that picture." Piped up Trudy as she pointed to an old faded photograph on the wall, she was wearing an old blue dress and a crushed straw hat.

"Honey, I think our grandchildren have discovered the attic. You gotta come see them." Buck called to his wife of nearly twenty-five years.

Louise Cross came into the living room wiping her hands on her apron. "Oh my word!" Lou laughed looking at her two four year old grandchildren. "You two look adorable, Trudy, how did you ever manage not to fall down the stairs in that dress? And Tyler that hat is sitting funny on your head, do you have something under it?" Lou asked eyeing the hat with a frown.

"I holded it all up like this!" Trudy reached down and grabbed the hem of the dress and demonstrated how she walked with all the fabric bunched in her little hands while her brother reached up and swept the hat off his head. Out fell several bits of fabric all rolled up in small neat balls.

"I used the funny socks." Tyler said as he reached for the small bag his sister was carrying. "We forgotted my gloves."

Lou and Buck had walked over to the children and Lou picked up the balls of fabric. "I forgot we still had that stuff packed away." Buck said helping his grandson put on a pair of well worn gloves; the fingers still looked flat. "I think your hands are gonna have to grow a bit before those will fit you! They used to be mine…" Buck turned and scooped his granddaughter up and making her shriek with laughter.

"I wonder what else they got into upstairs" mused Lou. "Tyler, want to show us what else you found?" Lou unrolled one of the balls and instead of socks the ball was a pair of black lace gloves.

The group was partway up the stairs, with Tyler in the lead, when the front door opened and the twins' parents entered. "Hi, kids, we were just about to take a walk down memory lane wanna join us?" Buck asked his oldest daughter and her husband. Lou and Tyler kept going to the attic.

"Um, sure, why are you carrying Trudy? Is she OK?" Emmy-sue looked at her children and rubbed her swollen tummy as Tyler disappeared around the corner of the stairs.

"I didn't want her to trip." Buck swung the little girl over his shoulder like a sack of grain; she looked up at her mother and giggled. The long skirt fell almost to Buck's waist.

"We played dress up and I'm Gramma!" Trudy giggled some more as her parents took off their coats and followed Buck upstairs.

CRASH, THUD

All three adults on the stairs jumped at the sounds and then breathed a collective sigh of relief when Lou's voice called down "We're OK the cat just knocked over that old lamp from Mrs. Rivers, you might want to bring a broom." The cat zoomed past them and hid under the sofa in the sitting room.

"I'll get the broom" Tim, Buck and Lou's son-in-law, called back as he turned for the kitchen.

"Give the cat some cream too, I hated that thing!" Buck laughed as he turned the corner and continued to the attic door.

Lou was sitting in the corner of the attic looking over the contents of a trunk both she and Buck had forgotten about. She looked up as they entered "How's my newest grandbaby coming?"

"Mom, Dad, you were right the doctor thinks it might be twins again. Tim's all proud of himself and Dad wipe that grin off your face. You men don't have to birth and raise 'em!" Emmy-sue laughed as her parents hugged her. "Oh I remember playing dress up in these!" She looked in the trunk and pulled out a faded cloth rose hair comb with one moth eaten feather attached. "Oh Trudy, you have to try these on they're Grandmomma's old dress up gloves."

Buck had set the little girl down and she joined her mother beside the trunk. Emmy-sue put a pair of long white gloves on her daughter's arms they came all the way up to her shoulders and still had room to spare. Tim swept the remains of the lamp into a corner and joined his wife and children as they explored the trunk.

"Hey these are pretty fancy were they yours Dad?" Tim asked trying on a pair of white kid gloves with gold stitching and sliver studs on the cuffs.

"Oh no, I wouldn't be caught dead in something like those, they belonged to your Uncle Cody." Buck nodded at his daughter. "He had a pair like that made for all of us, well except your mother, he gave her those ones Trudy's wearing. He had this Wild West show and he had a special night just for us, those were his gifts to us. We had a really great time, remember Honey?"

"Oh, I do and it was so much like your Uncle, way over the top! Anyway those others, there, the ones with the fringe are his too. He liked fringe always wore it said it made him look more manly! I think that was why your Uncle Kid stopped wearing it!" Lou laughed.

"Hmm, you still have those lace gloves? Remember the time you got that job at a saloon to…" Buck was interrupted by Emmy-sue.

"You worked in a saloon? Dad how could you let her? My mother, a lady of the night!" she looked shocked but she was smiling.

"Mommy what's a lady of the night?" Tyler asked innocently. Trudy traded the white gloves for the lace ones.

"A lady that works nights," Buck answered quickly, the adults laughed shaking their heads. The twins turned their attention back to the trunk. "Emmy-sue I could never tell your mother what she could or couldn't do any more then I can change your mind once you have it set, I think it's a McCloud woman thing. I always LOVED that little black dress she wore working there…" Buck made a little movement with his hand and Lou punched his arm.

The afternoon wore into the evening as the twins found more and more things to pull out of the trunk. Everything had a story and memories attached to it. At the bottom of the trunk were Lou's old 'boy' clothes and a faded pink dress.

"That was the first dress I ever saw your mother in, her cheeks were so pink….she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, still is!" Buck laughed, kissed his wife's cheek and stood up. "I don't know about the rest of you but I'm starving."

"I forgot about dinner! Come on Emmy lets go throw something together…" Lou stood and the family joined her. The trunk was closed, the memories would wait for another day.