Entry tags:
Divesting the detritus of decades
(This post serves a dual function: I'm testing the DSL connection off a different phone jack.)
Back a few months ago, while poking around for entries in the geek-off challenge, I pulled two boxes down out of the attic that contain stuff dating back to my pre-college days. Boxes I hadn’t really examined in detail since things were put into them (although the specific physical boxes date to my days in San Jose in the early ‘80s). In searching through them for the items I was looking for, I came to the conclusion it was time to bring Life-cleaning principles into play. If I’m going to save stuff, it should be stuff that’s worth saving and ideally should be kept accessible. I did some initial discards back when I pulled the boxes down. (Mostly on the principle of “if I can’t even remember why this was important to save, it isn’t important”.) So it’s time for some additional sifting.
Discard: The “thanks for participating” trophy from the summer athletics program in 1970. The “thanks for participating” trophy from the science fair in 1973. The trophy for Division A 3rd place for the Horace Mann Jr. High Math Team from 1973. That one was actually for achieving something, but it’s gotten broken at some point, so into the discard pile. Hmm, and here’s the Division A 1st place trophy for the 1972 Math Team. Still in good shape. Does that mean I keep it? Why? What purpose would it serve? I’m pondering too long so it makes it to the next round. The souvenier paperweight from the Navel Electronics Lab for participating in the all-city physics competition. As I recall, I took first place, but the paperweight doesn’t say anything specifically about that, so no special attachment.
Further Discard: A pine-cone flower pin. A jingle-bell. Make that three jingle-bells. A stuffed penguin xmas ornament. (Why???) A blue braided cord. A little plastic mouse with a pin back. A charm bracelet that came pre-charmed. (It might be a keeper if the charms had been acquired individually for meaningful reasons.) A junky chain bracelet with a leprechaun on it. (Why???) A bracelet and choker necklace with small tumbled stones glued on them, dating from my acquisition of a rock tumbler. One earring, ditto. A pin with “afs” (American Field Service – the group that sponsored foreign students at our high school). A small junky heart-shaped locket on a chain set with a green plastic heart-shaped “stone”. No doubt a present from some relative at some point, but no sentimental attachment left. A hospital bracelet with my name on it, probably from when I had my broken pelvis.
Keep for now: The 1st place Mathematics medal from High School. Not sure whether this was an overall 1st or just for my year. The 1st place Chemistry medal for the Division 1 team for 1975 (my senior year). My CSF (?California Scholastic F-something?) lapel pin. My very first driver’s license. A mostly-empty diary with entries from 1975-1977, mostly 1975 covering the initial bits of the year in Germany (or rather, mostly covering the month of travel in Europe waiting for the house in Germany to be ready for us).
Further keep for now: A silver ring with a horses’s head on it, dating to the period when I was desperately trying to be horse-crazy (and failing miserably for a variety of reasons). A small chain with two carved slate pendants with Deep Personal Significance. A medium-sized abalone shell (because one never gets rid of abalone shells – it’s a rule). A child-sized bracelet with an engraved plaque saying “Phyllis” that must have been mom’s as a child. Two boxes of blown-glass animals that were handed over to me at some point when I could be trusted not to break (too many of) them. The mortarboard tassel from my U.C. Davis graduation.
Keep for further examination later: Three small boxes of assorted rocks and body parts. Yes, the contents are pretty much as bizarre as that sounds. (They also managed to get dumped all over the floor while moving furniture around to test the phone jack.) A plastic bag of assorted Meaningful Objects, mostly from the grade school era.
One box is now entirely emptied an the keepers consolidated into the second box. The second largely contains paper items: correspondence, school yearbooks, school pictures, my Baby Book. Most of this will be keepers, but will be put on shelves rather than returned to the attic.
Back a few months ago, while poking around for entries in the geek-off challenge, I pulled two boxes down out of the attic that contain stuff dating back to my pre-college days. Boxes I hadn’t really examined in detail since things were put into them (although the specific physical boxes date to my days in San Jose in the early ‘80s). In searching through them for the items I was looking for, I came to the conclusion it was time to bring Life-cleaning principles into play. If I’m going to save stuff, it should be stuff that’s worth saving and ideally should be kept accessible. I did some initial discards back when I pulled the boxes down. (Mostly on the principle of “if I can’t even remember why this was important to save, it isn’t important”.) So it’s time for some additional sifting.
Discard: The “thanks for participating” trophy from the summer athletics program in 1970. The “thanks for participating” trophy from the science fair in 1973. The trophy for Division A 3rd place for the Horace Mann Jr. High Math Team from 1973. That one was actually for achieving something, but it’s gotten broken at some point, so into the discard pile. Hmm, and here’s the Division A 1st place trophy for the 1972 Math Team. Still in good shape. Does that mean I keep it? Why? What purpose would it serve? I’m pondering too long so it makes it to the next round. The souvenier paperweight from the Navel Electronics Lab for participating in the all-city physics competition. As I recall, I took first place, but the paperweight doesn’t say anything specifically about that, so no special attachment.
Further Discard: A pine-cone flower pin. A jingle-bell. Make that three jingle-bells. A stuffed penguin xmas ornament. (Why???) A blue braided cord. A little plastic mouse with a pin back. A charm bracelet that came pre-charmed. (It might be a keeper if the charms had been acquired individually for meaningful reasons.) A junky chain bracelet with a leprechaun on it. (Why???) A bracelet and choker necklace with small tumbled stones glued on them, dating from my acquisition of a rock tumbler. One earring, ditto. A pin with “afs” (American Field Service – the group that sponsored foreign students at our high school). A small junky heart-shaped locket on a chain set with a green plastic heart-shaped “stone”. No doubt a present from some relative at some point, but no sentimental attachment left. A hospital bracelet with my name on it, probably from when I had my broken pelvis.
Keep for now: The 1st place Mathematics medal from High School. Not sure whether this was an overall 1st or just for my year. The 1st place Chemistry medal for the Division 1 team for 1975 (my senior year). My CSF (?California Scholastic F-something?) lapel pin. My very first driver’s license. A mostly-empty diary with entries from 1975-1977, mostly 1975 covering the initial bits of the year in Germany (or rather, mostly covering the month of travel in Europe waiting for the house in Germany to be ready for us).
Further keep for now: A silver ring with a horses’s head on it, dating to the period when I was desperately trying to be horse-crazy (and failing miserably for a variety of reasons). A small chain with two carved slate pendants with Deep Personal Significance. A medium-sized abalone shell (because one never gets rid of abalone shells – it’s a rule). A child-sized bracelet with an engraved plaque saying “Phyllis” that must have been mom’s as a child. Two boxes of blown-glass animals that were handed over to me at some point when I could be trusted not to break (too many of) them. The mortarboard tassel from my U.C. Davis graduation.
Keep for further examination later: Three small boxes of assorted rocks and body parts. Yes, the contents are pretty much as bizarre as that sounds. (They also managed to get dumped all over the floor while moving furniture around to test the phone jack.) A plastic bag of assorted Meaningful Objects, mostly from the grade school era.
One box is now entirely emptied an the keepers consolidated into the second box. The second largely contains paper items: correspondence, school yearbooks, school pictures, my Baby Book. Most of this will be keepers, but will be put on shelves rather than returned to the attic.