Souvenirs

The pending arrival of our daughter has forced me to undertake some long overdue spring cleaning.

Sharon and I had way too much stuff when we combined households. Probably when I moved in was the right time to weed some of it out. And I did, but not nearly enough. Now, almost four years later, the kid is pushing me into action.

I'll admit I'm a bit of a pack rat. I tend to save back issues of magazines that I subscribe to. I have various collections of memorabilia. I buy way too much music for a guy who lives in a townhouse and has resisted joining the iCult. I can also be sentimental about holding on to pieces of the past, which can only mean more boxes to move around later.

The Li'l' Peanut's entrance into the picture means parting with some of the past and embracing the future. I'm glad to do it, but clearing space for her in my life means hours of hard work. And I haven't even handled a shitty diaper yet.

I started with the guitar magazines. I weeded some out before Sharon and I got married, but I still had two boxes' worth sitting underneath the stairs in the basement. If nothing else, that space will be needed to store the changing table or crib when we're done with it. I just started tearing out articles or lessons I wanted to keep, and pitching the rest. I got it down to about 20 magazines, and I'm hopeful to do a little better. At the very least, there will be one fewer box in the basement.

Poring over some of the other boxes has been more problematic. When one of my favorite musicians or sports figures dies, I tend to collect newspapers and magazines that reported the news. As a result, there's a bunch of stuff related to the passing of Ted Williams, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Johnny Cash and Stevie Ray Vaughan. A lot of stuff. Retirements are big, too, so there's no shortage of paper pertaining to Wayne Gretzky, Larry Bird, and Cal Ripken Jr. down there.

I've been a lot more reluctant to part with this stuff, particularly the music mags. I'm not sure why. I've gotten less sentimental about a lot of things. I considered throwing out the jacket I got for winning the Maine state high school football championship in '87. I didn't, but I thought about it. Because it doesn't really mean anything to me anymore. It was fun at the time, and I had a lot of fun with my friends. But it isn't part of my life anymore. It's almost like it happened to another person.

There will be fewer sports items saved from now on. That's for sure. After 11 years in sports departments and an increasing number of scandals, there's not much to look up to in sports anymore. There sure as hell aren't any heroes taking the field. September 11 finally drove it home for me. Cops and firefighters knew they were going to die in the towers. They went in anyway. Maybe Mark McGwire would have done the same, but I'm not betting my check on it.

I've found good homes for some of the sports stuff, so I'll rest easy knowing that the new owners will get enjoyment from it. The music keepsakes are staying, at least for now. I don't know if our little girl will care who Kurt Cobain and Carl Perkins were. They might not be part of her life, but their music, and that of many others, was with her daddy through good time and bad times. They're not going anywhere.

Comments

[kate]

From one packrat to another: There's always public storage.

[sid]

I can't believe you didn't offer me any of your sports memorabilia.
I'll never forget where I was when that one guy retired. He was really good at doing that thing and going far.