Der Gunmeister: Origins

  In 1976 we moved from college station TX to Harper. I was going to be a freshman in high school, and Harper was such a small town compared to what i was used to. But for my mom and Dad it was a new beginning. My Dad had been a professor, a rancher, a pilot during world war 2, and then a gunsmith. He had been a national skeet shooter as well. So when he opened Der Gunmeister the local paper featured it with some photos and a little story.  I found the original papers folded up in a little shelf as I was cleaning up the puzzles... My dad looks happy and proud of himself in this photo, and so much younger than he did at thanks giving. I wonder if they will write up a little story about my shop when its ready to open?
So Im back at the shop this weekend and so much happened in 2 days that it will take more than 1 post to cover, so this post will focus on my Dad the Gunmeister himself.

One of the odd things about cleaning up is finding things around like he was in the middle of doing something when he just closed up the shop and left, like an empty wallet with his social security card, tax documents and membership cards, in a pile on one of the gun racks.

 Somebody made the little shop scene for dad, (did I?) and he has it in a place of prominence, along with a carved Der Gunmeister wood plaque, both of which i will keep along with the newspaper clippings in a kind of memory corner. I found a number of Printed targets too... My husband Tom who is practicing his target shooting will probably use them.

There are so many things that feel like they were important once, and at what time do things that were important, loose their importance? Is it as simple as a decision, a redirecting of your life, or was this stuff all important to my dad and the moment he passed away, they lost importance because the one person who cared about them was no longer on the same plane as these things. And if his spirit is somewhere aware of his life and that is is over, as such, how does he feel about these things now? What is really important?

I will try not to wax philosophical too much, but Im afraid it might happen anyway. Perhaps everyone who goes through their parent's things goes through the same kind of processes. There is something I am discovering about myself while doing this, in a way discovering things I never knew about my dad, and about myself. Too bad my Dad cant learn who I really am, or maybe it is more important for me to let my daughter know who I am. Hmmm.