MEN Scrapbook too!! 90 yr old Roy shares his scrapbook with me...

Being a scrapbook store owner I meet some pretty interesting people. My online message board has brought me a community of friends who I simply cherish. But today while at work in my scrapbook store, I got the pleasure of sitting with Roy. We spent 2 hours looking through his scrapbook he has been keeping most all of his life. Filled my heart with more passion then I have ever had for this industry/hobby before.

This is the cover of his album he made himself. He did masking and painting. His line, "been there done that", is so well explained in all the amazing pages inside his book. This man is not like any 90 year old I have ever met. I would guess him to be late 70's. He can remember names and stories like you would not believe. He had a page on the first Olympic skiier Woman who won a gold medal. Gretchen Frazer. He skiied with her and had a beautiful story to share about her. I could go on and on about the amazing people Roy has had the pleasure of meeting in his lifetime.

Here is shows me how he had a plain page and wanted to spruce it up. He so proudly said I took several colors of paint and just splashed them on there with a paint brush. No rhyme or reason. Just did what I thought looked good. He then matted his pictures and adhered them to his beautiful art work. I smiled huge and said WOW so many of us are doing this technique now. He said " so many people keep from creating because they worry about being nice and neat. They worry about what color, what size pictures. Does this picture go with that picture. He smiled with his huge bright smile and said my concern was getting the story down not what colors and such I used. Isn't this page simply gorgeous! These are all pictures of him as a child! Different stages. The page beside is had all his journaling.

Here is a page one of the pictures was a tin photo. You can see he has journaled here and there. It is a mix and match of old photos he had.

Look at that face! Can you see how I instantly fell in love with him? What a beautiful person he is.

He scrapped all the awards he and his wife ever won. Letters from the war you name it he has it in there. He told me last year he auctioned off a painting he did in the navy that was kept on his ship. His wife was in a home with Alzheimer's and he needed the extra money for her care. He put this painting on ebay and got an amazing amount of money. The Navy bought the painting for their museum. He had a page scrapped with pictures of the painting when he painted it as a young man. Pictures of him with it when he gave it up. The newspaper stories written about it all tucked inside this incredible scrapbook.

I was so blessed to have a customer/friend in the store with her camera on hand since mine was at home. My friends all know I never get my picture taken but today you could not have stopped me. What a moment and photo I will always cherish.

Roy comes to my town 20 miles from where he lives every other week as a Hospice Volunteer. Yes he still drives and I can say I would let him drive me around. He is just that with it. I asked him if he would make a point to stop in and visit me on the days he was in town. He has so many stories to tell. He says he figures he has another 3 or 4 years to live and wants to finish his album up. So we decided we would scrapbook together every other week. What a gift this is to me! I have never been so excited about scrapbooking! I love this hobby but seeing his scrapbook brought such new joy to me. He said " it's a mix match of stuff but if I took the time to organize it this would not be this far along. He is so right we need to get our stories on pages and not spend so much time organizing and planning it out. He also made a point how his favorite photos are the ones not cropped. I could not agree more with this. Seeing the stores and dirt streets in the back ground brought the photos to life. There is so much to learn from this amazing man. He is planning to come speak to a store full of customers who want to hear his stories and also he said he has so much to share about the art of scrapbooking. He said he wants to get tell people what the heart of their albums should be. I am excited about my new friendship with Roy.
I look forward to my time scrapbooking and talking with Roy. I hope to share more here with you then too.