Memories and "Stuff"

Back in the day, before children, I subscribed to Better Homes and Gardens. I kept the subscription for many years, and one of my favorite parts of the magazine was a page called The Man Next Door by Burton Hillis. He always had a series of fun comments, and then he followed with a short story or philosophical discussion that seemed to always hit the spot. One of my favorites was about the value of good neighbors, but I am not sure where that one is. Today I came across the following one, which hit me hard, as I have been trying to clean out my house. I thought I would share it (and save it here so I can throw away the July, 1985, piece of paper): I sometimes wonder if other people have as much trouble getting rid of things as we do. Typically, Chris and I will dig in with a will to clean out a closet or empty a room, only to give up the job in frustration in a few hours. "Can't get rid of that," one of us will say. "It might come in handy." The "that" might be a crate of canning jars, or a book we've been meaning to read, or a broken lawn mower. Just the other day, Chris appeared with a boxful of old snapshots she'd found deep in a closet. "We haven't looked at these in years," she said. "I'll bet we can throw most of them away." Sure. We spent two hours going over those pictures, and managed to throw away 13 photographs of people we didn't recognize. It was almost as bad as the time we spent most of a day going over old clothing. At the end, I caught Chris slipping a tattered and faded swatch of flannel into a drawer. I smile, but said nothing. It was all that was left of the security blanket our Rosemary had dragged around the first three years of her life. It's hard to throw away memories. Burton Hillis It's hard to throw away memories. And with every Daulton Doll, Hummel, depression-glass bowl, or salt cellar I try to give to DAV, I put it back because I can't stand to dispense with it. How do I send the dancing Marilyn Monroe statue that my grandmother had in the kid's room and lighted with blue Christmas lights? I don't. And the baptismal gowns we wore oh so many years ago? They are still with me. We are getting to the age where we need to come to terms with all of our collections . . . but it is hard to throw away memories.