Last Tuesday a portion of our stuff was delivered to our TH - a small portion. For the past 3 years its been stored up in our attic in Texas. So if we haven't needed it in 3 years we surely don't 'need it'.... WRONG - a little. Its the stuff that TOO hard to get rid of. Which is why 5 year ago my mom purged it from her house to mine.....
Its the old army uniforms, the newspapers from the rose bowl win, the handwritten letters from ROTC camp, Ranger school, Kosovo, Iraq. The wedding cards. The baby photos (OF ME!) What the heck do you do with this stuff!!
Chris is addicted to the show 'hoarders' so I went into the purge with the mindset of - THROW IT ALL AWAY. But as I read through the thoughtful written wedding congratulations I think, o.k. I will keep this one... and this one.... and this one... what the heck, lets put them all in a folder. I will purge something else.
So I move to the box that has stored memories from my years at Michigan. Ticket stubs from concerts i had totally forgotten I attended. newspaper articles from the storied football season. Notes and birthday cards and friends, family and the most humorous - boyfriends. Just reading through everything (and yes, I read through it all) brought me back almost 100% to the days in college. NOTHING else can do this as I swear my memory gets worse every day. So now I am drudging through clipping here, pasting there and trying to put the one book together worth storing in some trunk that I will inevitably have to go through again (or my kids will with hopefully some form of nostalgia)
My folks keep just about everything. I will prove it to you next month as they travel out here with a hanging lamp that my mom thought of while I was telling her there isn't any overhead lighting in the bedrooms. Her exact comment was - I don't think I have seen it since Italy, but I'm sure we still have it.... of course they did! So does the new use for the light fixture justify its nearly 40 years of storage. I guess maybe the picture will tell - stay tuned.
some of my favorite treasures so far -
rose bowl 1997-8 game AND parade ticket
Letter from Ryan Ehrler (never a boyfriend - just all around awesome guy) from Ranger School
Card from Diana after an interesting altercation (this card 'grounds me')
Letters from my sister while I was at camp - to include her graduation announcement as I missed it.
Deans list notice for college (yes, this is me bragging)
Copies of airline tickets to ROTC advanced camp - these hit the trash - pronto -
A letter from Rib saying the party they had Friday only required 1 keg and the person sleeping next to him was Vito
newspaper articles my folks saved from Kosovo as well as cards I had written
As my husband watched Rambo 2 (i cannot believe they made more of these horrible movies) I put them all in a scrap book and all the while I wondered the conversation my 3 boys would have when they stumble on this stuff. Newspapers? who prints this stuff? Why would you write a letter? Guess some things are worth keeping.
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