When I first decided to take on this task, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting into…heck,  I’m still not really sure what I am getting into. All I know is that I have a stack of yellowed envelopes staring me down, and a massive sense of curiosity that I can’t seem to quiet.

Everyone around me has been so supportive of this endeavour, and I’ve been able to reconnect with family members that I haven’t seen since I was a child, and meet others that I didn’t even know existed! Even though this pile of what are often nearly illegible scribbles seem a bit overwhelming at times, it’s already worth it. Being able to connect with family, being able to open some doors into my family history… At the risk of sounding cliché, and quoting a well-known commercial, it’s priceless.

My family, like many families, have not had the most…transparent histories, if you may. It might be that I just missed the boat on grilling the elders and now I’m playing catch up, and maybe the details were always there for the taking and I was just too young to notice. Either way…here goes.

My rambling aside, perhaps it’s time for an introduction. Internet, please meet Gord, The Oakwood Kid. The young man that you’ll be living along with over the next while. Because I have vowed to not travel too far ahead in the letters, I don’t know too much about Gord yet, other than that he seemed to have a great love for his mom (one heartwarming Valentines telegram that you’ll soon see will prove that) and a bit of a sense of mischief that could only be expected from a young man, he just seems like a bright, adventurous, funny guy.

.:SK:.