Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Having a Sort (and Clear Out)...

As a way to pass the time at work, and clear some clutter in the basement, I recently (today actually) decided to start going through some old papers. Some date back to kindergarten (special drawings, etc.), but most are from my college and journalism days.

In the small stack I’ve tackled so far, I found a newsletter and a membership card from the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Fan Club. That dates back to 1984 when I was going through my “detective phase” (blame it on “Remington Steele”). It was in a folder with a bunch of news clippings, brochures, etc. all relating to detective shows, books and magazines. I’ve tossed the lot, but decided to hang on to the ND/HB Fan Club membership card for nostalgia’s sake.

Some folders contained the mundane – like info. about various subjects I was once interested in: Sleep & Dreams (took a class on that at KSU), the Moore Mansion (a historical property located on the back campus of LCC), and the Titanic. Having lost interest in at least two out of three and no longer needing the info from the other, all went straight to the recycling bin.

Other folders weren’t so easy – one contained various notes and letters from the period when I was dating my ex-boyfriend. With the exception of a few sympathetic notes and greeting cards, that folder was soon dumped (contents to be shredded!).
The only thing I’m uncertain as to what to do with, are the various brown envelopes containing a meticulous collection of news clippings from various historical events over the last 40 years or so:

a) 20 year anniversary of May 4, 1970
b) death of Princess Diana
c) death of JFK Jr.
d) the reopening of the Sam Sheppard case

It seems a shame to just chuck out the lot, especially after all the effort I went to in clipping each individual article. I guess I thought maybe someday I might put them in a scrapbook, but who wants to read about death and doom and gloom? (I already have a Sept. 11 scrapbook). I doubt my nieces and nephews will ever appreciate my compulsion. Perhaps if I were the artistic type, I could mould some sort of a paper mache’ mannequin relating to the topic of the articles, but that strikes me as a bit morbid too. I guess ending up in the recycling bin is probably the kindest future for these remnants of the past.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The shredder was the best invention ever made.