Spring Cleaning Surprises

I have been spring cleaning this house for 10 months now...it started as a "fall clean-up" in September. I've been living in the same house for 12 years and I had stacks of boxes and garbage bags that hadn't been opened since my departure from college in 1973.
(I say that because I don't want to admit there are a few items from grade school among the various articles of past interests)

Why did I keep all those mystery items? Memories? Well, if that were the case, wouldn't I remember why the heck I saved the stuff? When I gathererd the nerve to start opening one box at a time, I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone, peering in on someone else's life and their belongings.
"Wow...this person must have taken swim lessons..I see a polliwog and turtle badge."
"Gee..this picture makes me wonder why she would ever think of wearing her hair that way at THAT prom..and who is the guy? ~ nope, no recollection of this nervous looking fella wearing a waiter's uniform. Hey! Maybe he WAS a waiter and he was just passing by and she paid him to pose with her."

I found pictures of friends that I've lost contact with and could still freeze-frame the great times we had together...whether it be my first fishing experience in a little pond in Hilliard, Ohio or my first camping in the back-yard while it rained both outside AND inside the tent.

Some of the resurrected harvest turned out to be true treasures. Like the audio cassette that my Mom made for me during the opening of Christmas presents one year when I couldn't make it home from Boston. I had a flash-back of listening to that tape a week later in Boston, tearing up as I heard the usual funny chatter and jokes about the goofy presents being opened....and swearing that I would never miss Christmas again with my family.


Well, I am still S & S....sorting and saving. It feels good to throw out the junk and move on.. make room for new memories. But to reminisce about the good old days is good now and then, don't you think?

Yep, I still have some boxes and bags of gems that I couldn't part with...and will re-visit in another 12 years.

Still, I will never miss Christmas with my family again....unless I get an all-expense paid trip to Ireland.