I am not a collector, never have been. When I was about eight, I remember having a grouping of rocks I’d found that looked interesting. And there was that shoebox full of marbles, but that and many things from my childhood were left behind in Virginia when my parents divorced and I was suddenly living in Oklahoma with my mom and grandparents. I guess I learned early that possessions could be fleeting.
My Guy, though, lived his whole life in one house with
parents who were never particularly well-off and on whom the Great Depression
had made its impact. Thus, once you acquired something, you held on to it and
took good care of it.
Add that to his life-long love of baseball, and the next
thing you know, 60 years later and you have a basement full of baseball cards.
We’ve both come to view possessions differently now in our
later years. I’m sure I’ve written about this before, but I still find the
irony breath-taking. We worked and acquired and worked and acquired, and now
that you could possible say we’ve arrived, we realize we don’t need or want many
of those possessions anymore.
Four years ago, when I parted with my grandmother’s big
clawfoot wingback chair – the one I remember curling up in to read when I was
eleven – I finally realized that I still had the memory if not the chair. And
that was enough.
So, the binders and binders of baseball cards are moving on down the road to a woman with a shop where My Guy is selling them for a pittance (and I do mean a pittance) in spite of several individual cards that could easily sell on the internet for hundreds each.
They’ll be gone, but his memories of lazy summer
afternoons out at Lake George on his best friend John’s porch trading baseball
cards still remain.
It is hard to part with physical objects that remind us of important memories. Mine are mostly photographs which are digital and take up far less space.
ReplyDeleteAll praise to both of you. We have far too many things.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of baseball cards! It's good work to offload, nice job.
ReplyDeleteMy parents had trouble getting rid of things. Not true "hoarders", but close. I think that's why I'm a minimalist.
"I still had the memory if not the chair. And that was enough" - ah, yes.
But I’m keeping the Pete Rose rookie card. ($25k). Have fun finding it when I bite the big one
ReplyDeleteOkay, hubby. But who knows? You may have the last laugh.
DeleteAbout 10 years ago, we sold our very large house where our children spent most of their childhoods. Before I broke down, disassembled, and got rid of all of that stuff, I took a picture of every room, every object, even closets. I cherish those pictures and don’t miss all of the “stuff”. I have only regretted getting rid of two things. Not for sentimental reasons, but because I needed them later. I bought replacements.
ReplyDeleteI suggest you take pictures.
What a good idea. Wish now I'd done that with our first house where we raised the kids.
DeleteAfter what one might call a "sparse" childhood, I also grew up to acquire and collect and while I have culled many of the books, I am not yet ready to let go of anything else. Even a huge supply of Christmas ornaments that I never put up anymore are still with me.
ReplyDeleteI understand what you mean about the ties to "stuff" weakening as you get older. I'm feeling that way now. We brought a bunch of stuff with us when we moved to England in 2011, but I think if we ever go back to the states I'll ditch everything and start fresh (with much less)!
ReplyDelete