As we’ve started packing our stuff in preparation for the move we’ve taken the opportunity to throw some things away. Things that we have collected over the years that we just couldn’t part with for some reason or another but now, after re-examination, we are able to muster up the courage and throw it away. There’s something cathartic about being able to let go and get rid of stuff you just haven’t used or even looked at for years.

During this process I’ve come across things that I vaguely remember knowing about things but not knowing exactly where they were or even if we still had them. Tonight I was up in the attic bringing stuff down and I found a picture album with this picture that Jen took in 1997 while we were on our honeymoon to San Francisco.
Leon Thompson
It was taken during our tour of Alcatraz and is me with Leon “Whitey” Thompson, who was an inmate there for four years. I did a google search for him and it turns out that he passed away in 2005.

According to the obituary in the SF Gate:

“Mr. Thompson had only a sixth-grade education, and writing did not come easily. He wrote and rewrote the book by hand nine times. No one would publish it, and the Thompsons could not find an agent. So they borrowed $3,200 and published the book themselves, took 500 copies back to Alcatraz, by then part of a national park, and set up shop in the bookstore.They sold all 500 copies in a week. The book “Last Train to Alcatraz,” later retitled “Rock Hard”, sold 85,000 copies”

We purchased a copy of “Last Train to Alcatraz” and Leon signed it right before this picture was taken. I have no idea if we have one of the first 500 copies but we have a copy.

Here’s a picture of us taken at the Muir Woods. Good Lord, how did they ever let two kids like us get married :-)

Jen and I at the Muir Woods