Category: Living my Life

Continuing my Spring Break trip to the attic.

One of the boxes I opened last week contained my baby book and autograph books from grade school (remember those?).  For safe keeping, I put them away in a large plastic tub marked “Scrapbooks” and moved on.

I have to confess here that I save newspaper clippings. That’s not so strange (she said defensively). My mother saved poetry from the columns in the newspaper. I inherited a shoe box full of Edgar A. Guest. My BFF reads the newspaper thoroughly every day to clip items of interest and fasten them in a journal with her comments. I wish I were so organized.

I often keep an article of interest and put in a file folder to be transferred to a box when the folder is too fat. My ultimate plan at one time might have been to make a scrapbook or journal. I don’t know. But from the contents of the box from a few years ago that I found, it would seem I saved virtually everything Erma Bombeck or Mollie Ivins ever wrote. I easily tossed these out. I have their books now.

I obviously felt obligated to keep the obituary of every single person I knew, cartoons and comic strips I found amusing,  and “years in review.” As I sorted and tossed, I stopped to read occasionally. But I made good time going through that box, feeling no sentiment, just amazement that I had saved all that junk (and moved it at least once).

Several times I came across a whole section of newspaper and had to look at each page to figure out why on earth I had saved that particular piece. I could not throw it away without knowing.  That ‘s part of the illness.

Thus, I became engrossed in reading a Perspective section of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette dated in May, 2001. The paper it was printed on was huge – 14 inches across when the present issue has shrunk to barely 12. There were whole pages dedicated to books and travel. I can only guess why I saved this issue. I think it was because I had worked the crossword puzzle perfectly, something that doesn’t happen very often.

In this almost 13-year-old paper was an op-ed on the pros and cons (mostly pros) of the proposed law to ban smoking in restaurants.  An increased ‘bed tax’ on the nursing homes was advancing through the legislature. A ‘100-year flood’ swelled the Mississippi River, the 4th such flood in the past 8 years. A headline promised to tell us “How Schools Can Recognize and Prevent Bullying.”  And Congress was fighting over a health care issue: The Patients’ Bill of Rights (which did not pass).

Well, this stream of consciousness has gone from 70-80 year old mementos to revisiting our pre-9-11 issues. Such are the adventures in my attic. The job’s not done but I made a big dent.

For Lent, I decided to keep my New Year’s resolutions.

I’m being facetious of course. But, seriously, I did vow to use Spring Break to hack away at a to-do list I’ve had for a long time.

One is a goal every person my age should have: Do your kids a favor and get rid of that stuff.

Earlier this month I spent a Saturday going through a box that contained roughly 60 years of Mother’s Day cards.  After the first hour spent reading each card and putting it in an “undecided” stack, I realized the project needed to move faster. I tossed out all the cards that had only signatures and kept the notes and enclosed letters to read later.

The result of an afternoon of work? One-half a box cleared out. So you see my problem. How can I trash a hand-made card signed in all capital letters and a backward E?

Yesterday was a Spring Break Day dedicated to the boxes. One marked “Newspapers” was exactly that. I lifted the lid and on top was a copy of The Nashville Banner (later swallowed up by the Tennessean) dated November 23, 1992, with the headline “Country Music Legend Roy Acuff Dies” splashed just under the masthead in huge type. I thought it significant that a story that appeared in other big city papers in the entertainment section was front page news in Music City.

I confess that from time to time I have saved a newspaper with a headline I thought outstanding or interesting. I have a Staples paper box full of them. I think on the bottom there is a Denison (TX) Herald announcing Eisenhower’s election. I decided to keep this box and let the kids enjoy a little history.

More later. Stay tuned.