Ever have something so long you can’t remember where it came from? Or how it got to be where it is now?

I’m looking at a quite normal beige 9 x 11.5” box (from Kenneth W. Fosburg Co, 558 Buffalo St, Jamestown, N.Y. Phone 61-156) labeled “AUSTRALIA Misc. Books & Pictures” with “MISC. AUSTRALIAN BOOKS & PAPERS” on the shorter end. I knew my father (born October 27, 1910) typed the labels and I knew the box contains things from his time in World War II, probably mostly in New Guinea. I’ve never looked. But for these past weeks, I waited until this afternoon’s free time to open what I expect to be a treasure from the past. We’ll take the journey together.

There are nine periodicals and printed magazines: Australia National Journal (both April and May 1943) filled with cartoons, commentary, photographs and ads (surprisingly Johnson’s Baby Powder and Jantzen sweaters among them — even instructions to knit a lady’s sweater!); YANK FAR EAST (Nov. 24, 1944) heralding MacArthur’s return which runs to U.S. news (Bobbysoxers swooning at Frank Sinatra, pretty 18-year-olds Jeanne Crain and June Haver; an illustrated Gazette (by Java Publicity) autographed by a few fellow soldiers; 6 copies of pencil drawings; a map of Java; 1943 calendar with a red,white and blue ribbon for hanging, each month featuring a plane or ship, none identified (all of these just a little too big for the box); Australia Limited with just over 100 pages of apparent honest criticism and, lastly, a tiny Pocket Guide to Australia put out by our War & Navy Departments.

Next — photo booklets of Sydney, Brisbane and Townsville; one program of a U.S. Army Football Game (8/22/43) and, to my surprise, a guide to the Spice Islands dedicated by DiLammers to “Susan the daughter of a Daddy of whom you should be very proud.”

I count just over a dozen newspapers, five marked “From David in Australia.” Is that my mother’s script? I value well the recipes she wrote but with this I can’t be sure. There’s a treasure trove here for someone who’d like to dig. I regret it isn’t I.

Yes! The letters I was hoping for.

No — my hopes are dashed. I find an undated telegram from Australia sent to my Grandmother’s home at 306 Conewango Avenue (no longer there) to say he arrived – love.

There are five folded 8×11 pages with taped photographs, all passed by the censor. One has five pictures of a football game. Remember those days when everything we shot was at such a distance one could see nothing but scads of unrecognizable people far away? That’s this. A second page has Mess Line, Officer’s Mess, Kitchen Truck and Sylvan Dell (really far away) “where we ‘et.” (His sense of humor never left him.) “The Start of the March” has three pictures with Capt. Stormer (Oil City), Ed Hall and “Bush and Boss.” Again, indeterminate groups. All I can recognize for sure is a smallish white dog leading the troops. Another page “Another of the mountain — flower beds — from in front of my tent,” (I’ll accept flower beds if he says so.) “our baseball park and camp area” (OK) and “Headquarters Tent” which is marked “BATTALION HEADQUARTERS” and seems impressively high.

It has been a good couple of hours. I’m grateful I took the time … finally. But, very candidly, feel empty.

I recognize the handwriting and the man in the pictures of course. He was 22 or 23 then, hard for me to relate to.

I remember what must have been the armistice — Mother taking our hands: my brother, three or four, and me, perhaps six, to dance the two blocks to town to join in a community celebration. I remember none of that at all.

I know (I think) we were sent to my father’s parent’s home so Mother could join him (New York City I believe is what I was later told) so the two, really strangers, could have time alone to become reacquainted.

I remember nothing else.

Susan Crossett has lived outside Cassadaga for more than 20 years. A lifetime of writing led to these columns as well as two novels. “Her Reason for Being” was published in 2008 with “Love in Three Acts” following in 2014. Information on all the Musings, her books and the author may be found at Susancrossett.com.