Saturday, September 26, 2009

Life's Mementos

DB and I have spent the past week cleaning, junking, organizing and packing our house up. Are we moving? Not necessarily. Maybe. We're not quite sure yet. We'll see... *insert frustrated groan* But we decided it was best to get ready, just in case. We've lived here for eight and half years but never really settled in or made the place our own. Why is it that it is not until you are getting ready to leave that you finally get everything just the way you want it? Murphies Law, I guess.

Sorting through life's "stuff" can be so cathartic...but it can also be emotionally taxing....

How can I let go of that hand written recipe of my Poppie's...even if it is for a minced liver dumpling...and I gag at the very thought of liver. I sit there and hold it in my hand and think of how how he must have sat at the kitchen table at our old family home.... and picked up one of his pencils (complete with teeth marks circa 1967) and written out this recipe in in that distinct big block lettering that somehow says everything about who he was? How can I throw that a way? On the other hand, how can I justify packing around those thousand of little momentous, the little bits and pieces of paper, rocks, ticket stubs and books that make up a life's history?...

The answer is that sometimes you have to make tough decisions and cut the proverbial fat...With that being said there are a few things I am having a bit of trouble with...
Like this.....
That is my bedside table. And yes, as a matter of fact, that is a beer bottle next to my alarm clock. No, I am not an alcoholic nor am I obsessed with Kokanee ("Its the beer out here"). It is just, that bottle is the last one from my Poppie's fridge. That deep brown bottle with the bright blue label has been sitting in that spot for two years now. I had planned on driving down to my Pop's favorite spot by the river and drinking it one day. But I never did because I didnt realize (being a non-drinker) that beer doesn't last forever...or even for like, a year.
And now I've waisted my Poppie's last bottle of beer (which I know he'd be royally pissed about) and yet I still just cant quite bring myself to throw it away.


Are you a sentimental fool like me? Or are you like DB and view those little mementos as nothing but a bunch of annoying "junk"?

7 comments:

  1. I'm a sentimental fool for sure. I have an old camera that still has a 110 film cassette in it. It was my first camera from almost 40 years ago. I cannot part with it and the film that was exposed probably holds no pictures but it's just one thing I cannot part with.......along with too many others. Like that electric orange, brown and gold zigzag afghan that my great aunt gave me so many decades ago. I thought it ugly then and still find the colors give me a headache but it's still with me. I have found spacebags to be helpful for those things. Especially my wedding dress which my daughter opted not to wear for her wedding. Why do I still have it? I don't know but I can't part with it. It's in a spacebag.....with that afghan.... and that camera ..... and ....wow! Stuff!


    openhorseshowjudge.blogspot.com

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  2. That's not junk to me! The knick knacks I've picked up at the dollar store and never used...junk. Handwritten recipe? Irreplaceable. Beer bottle too. Ticket stubs, rocks, ANYTHING that brings back an important memory...hang onto 'em. There's always room. ;)

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  3. Are you kidding me? I am the biggest sentimental fool ever, and a major pack rat. My mom used to clean my room when I was young and I'd be SO mad, she'd throw things out that I wanted! That is probably how my pack rat mentality started, LOL! I do go through and clean things out, but can't part with some childhood cards, stuffed animals, etc...
    One idea, you could always just empty the old bear out of the bottle, and use it to display a few fresh flower buds or something! :)

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  4. I don't think there is any reason at all to get rid of mementos. Keep them!

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  5. I think bloggers in general are a sentimental bunch, and I'm proud to peg the needle in this area. But I do find the need to lighten the load of the non sentimental things that pile up.

    We once cleaned out our house of sentimental items so we could rent it out while we were on a long trip. I couldn't do it. I spent hours remembering and eventually my husband had three guys come over and put everything in boxes.

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  6. My gosh, I am sentimental fool personified!!! I still have an envelope of hair from my first dog 20 years ago! I do hoard things and then tend to get overwhelmed by them, so I'm working on the "one box" method - any mementos I keep must fit into one box. So far, the way I'm doing this is to avoid sorting!

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  7. Chelsi,

    Instead of drinking the beer, you could go down by the river and pour it onto one of Poppie's favorite spots in honor of him.

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