I am not a pack rat by any means whatsover. Was that clear enough?
I've thrown away a lot of things I wish I had kept. There was the Mary Quant mini-dress I picked up off the sale rack at Hudson's and later given to the Salvation Army. Same for the autographed copy of Rosemary's Baby. And nothing is worse than going to an antiques show and seeing the very stuff you tossed marked with some ridiculous price-tag.
Even so, there were boxes in my basement that needed to be sorted through and tossed. Most of the boxes I brought home when I retired two years ago. Committee materials, awards, campaign documents, pictures. In other words, junk. Most of it is being tossed. Some is going to folks who still have an interest in this material.
What was more surprising was finding a box of 'stuff' from when I left my job with Detroit in 1977. There was my teaching manual on lipidology, a book on blood cell identification, my enzymology lecture notes, and even the enzymology exam I used for my students. (Confession: I no longer knew any of the answers to the questions I read. After a few, I just gave up.)
I am not sure why I ever kept them. And I must have seen that box over the years and wonder why I never opened it and then threw it out. Especially once I decided I was never going to work in a laboratory again. So, now it is all boxed up for the recycling bin, since most of it is paper. I think I have an entire small tree in my garage and Tuesday can't come fast enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment