I was cleaning out closets and drawers, in search of items for this weekend’s Grand & Glorious Garage Sale. Allie’s nursery school needed donations, and I was sure I could come up with plenty of things we no longer needed and didn’t want.
Everyone has the things they have to save. Knickknacks, fix-it projects, collections; clothes they might wear, dusty CDs or record albums saved for one song, books they loved.
My husband and I are not knickknack people. We share a small house and a low tolerance for clutter. We don’t collect anything or enjoy fixer-uppers; we’ve never bought anything on eBay.
But I have a few boxes. Childhood things, letters and cards, wedding mementos, ticket stubs and playbills and programs, small objects that make up a life.
Allie was excited to help with the cleaning project. We started with the toy box in the family room, and I was thrilled when she decided she no longer wanted the orange Boohbah that dances and makes strange sounds when you squeeze its hand or poke its foot.
But then she started taking things out of the garage sale box faster than I could put them in; at one point, she spirited a paperback copy of "Stellaluna" upstairs to her room, despite my repeated reassurances that we had two identical copies, and the other one was tucked securely on her bookshelf.
In her bedroom, she tore through the bags and boxes I’d taken out of her closet until the floor was strewn with piles of toys and clothes. Then she sat in the middle of the room and examined the items in her wake.
Some things were easy to give away: stranger-clothes with the tags still on, too small or too frilly or too scratchy; never worn, no memories and no regrets.
Other items created a dilemma: to keep or not to keep? Sometimes, it was a practical issue: Would Allie really use the hot-pink cowboy hat from big-sister Abby’s second-grade oral report on Madonna? What about the old shinguards and soccer cleats?
Eventually, Allie lost interest in the mess and went downstairs to play.
Knowing my kid-free time would be short, I quickly picked up piles and started sorting into empty boxes: yes, no, maybe.
I slowed down when I got to the box of baby things. Crib sheets and tiny washcloths, two pairs of scuffed shoes, side-by-side, in a Stride Rite box; two tiny pink-and-blue-striped hospital hats.
I started seeing snapshots. Abby in her yellow-and-white going-home-from-the-hospital outfit, her hands hidden inside the floppy arms, the booties nearly falling off her feet; Allie scooting across the floor in purple corduroy overalls, fast, one leg moving rhythmically back and forth like some sort of mechanical device, the other dragging behind.
What to do with things I will never use again but can’t bear to throw out or give away? I held a white burp cloth embroidered with "I Love Daddy" in blue letters to my face and could swear there was still a hint of baby smell.
By bedtime, I had five boxes and three bags of stuff for the sale, one organized closet and 18 items with which I simply could not part. I stowed them away in a plastic zippered bag from Allie’s crib bedding set. They will be safe there until I find the right box to keep them in.
The next morning, Allie didn’t come out of her room right away. I could hear her puttering around in there, and after a while she clumped out in Barbie snow boots, three sizes too big, and asked me to come into her room to watch her play dress-up.
Sipping coffee on her bed, I watched as she spotted the hot-pink hat in the closet and put it on. "I’m a cowboy," she declared, grinning and tilting her head in a two-second pose, then bending over to adjust her boots.
"Gotta go save a cat!" she said, and she tramped out the door.
Alone again in her room, I thought about kindergarten and middle school, both coming too fast, and all the boxes I will someday add to my collection.
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Lisa Miller is a freelance writer who lives in Oneonta. She can be reached at lisamiller44@hotmail.com.
Lisa Miller
Culling keepsakes to move on
- Lisa Miller
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A view from above
Fire towers in the Catskill Mountains have always been destination points, built to capture some of the region’s best views. These sentinel stations served an important role for the earliest possible sightings of forest fires in the remote mountain ranges. But the fire towers and those who manned them fulfilled a multitude of other roles as well.
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Being a parent is a constant learning process
I am sitting cross-legged on the floor in the dressing room, waiting for Allie's dance number to be called. The cave girl costume has been donned, the jazz shoes double-tied, the hair pulled back, the requisite dab of lipstick applied.
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Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
Half of Americans will be obese by 2030 if current trends continue, according to a report released last week in the British medical journal The Lancet.
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A family era ends with close of Potter series
As Harry Potter fans the world over flock to theaters for the final screenings of the final film in the eight-part series, I'm marking the end of an era myself, reading the last pages of the last book to my last child.
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Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
For many small communities, the Borders store at the nearest mall was the only place to browse and buy a variety of books, beyond the few titles offered in Walmart bestseller and bargain racks.
- Saturday, July 2, 2011
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Untethered from the cable box
I never imagined it would be so easy to be cable-free.
- Saturday, June 11, 2011
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On cells, sprouts and sodas
It figures. Six weeks after we dropped our landline, the World Health Organization issued a warning that radiation from cell phones might cause brain cancer. Meanwhile, the ultimate health food, organic bean sprouts, is being blamed for one of the deadliest E. coli outbreaks in recent history.
- Saturday, May 21, 2011
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End of the world as we know it? I feel fine
If you're reading this article after 6 p.m. and the ground is not shaking beneath your feet, then Harold Camping was wrong. Again.
- Sunday, May 1, 2011
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Song lyrics are an odd measure of attitudes
It was the third rainy weekend in a row, and I was scrolling through comments to a post by MSNBC blogger Melissa Dahl about a new study linking song lyrics to cultural changes.
- Saturday, April 9, 2011
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Parenting adventure takes a turn
On Friday, my 13-year-old daughter, Abby, will embark on the biggest adventure of her life.
- Saturday, March 19, 2011
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Japan devastation: Powerful reminder of our limitations
The images were surreal. People screaming from higher ground as they watched the relentless wave of brown water sweep up houses and topple power lines. Cars and boats floating like bath toys. Aerial photos of flattened villages, with crumpled roofs jutting out of the debris-laden landscape and orange-suited rescue workers like ants on a mountain of twigs.
- Saturday, February 26, 2011
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As food prices rise, sustainability makes more business sense
Frustration with high food prices is among the underlying causes of the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, and a global food crisis may be brewing.
- Tuesday, February 8, 2011
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National agenda needed to advance green technology
In his State of the Union address, President Obama issued a call to action for Americans to "out-innovate" the rest of the world and build on our history of doing "big things." Green technology is the next big thing, and it's our best hope to reinvent ourselves as competitors in the global economy. But we won't get there without a comprehensive national agenda supported by all parties -- political, yes, but also businesses, consumers, educators and students.
- Saturday, January 15, 2011
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Shootings remind us of need to teach children to hope
They should have been chattering about spelling tests and Hannah Montana songs. But instead, the two second-graders in my backseat were talking about the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. They had heard about it at school and were commiserating over the "sad" and "creepy" news as we drove home for a play date.
- Friday, December 3, 2010
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Marketing tactics could get kids to eat healthy foods
In a new twist on the "Super Size Me" fast-food diet experiment, the executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission ate nothing but spuds for 60 days.
- Saturday, November 13, 2010
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'Oneonta 360' captures essence of our area
The fact that Oneonta's new branding campaign has generated so much controversy shows how passionately people feel about this place. One thing everyone might agree on is that the essence of Oneonta cannot be easily conveyed in a few words or a logo. However, photographer Stephen Joseph makes a fascinating attempt to capture it in his new book, "Oneonta 360." If you haven't seen it yet, stop by Huntington Library, where one two-page spread is on display each day.
- Saturday, October 23, 2010
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Stem cell research must move forward
Robert Edwards of Britain received the Nobel Prize in medicine earlier this month for research that led to the birth of the first "test-tube baby" in 1978. Hugely controversial 32 years ago, Edwards' work is now lauded as a medical breakthrough that has brought immeasurable joy to the families of the 4 million babies born through in vitro fertilization.
- Saturday, October 2, 2010
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Supersized salmon? No thanks
Davenport Garden Center owner Dennis Valente drizzled maple syrup over sweet potatoes in the cafeteria kitchen while a group of sixth-graders topped pizza crusts with pesto they'd made using basil from their school garden.
- Saturday, September 11, 2010
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Chobani yogurt: Nothing but good for the area
I'm in love with Chobani. True to its marketing slogan, this locally made, Greek-style yogurt is, indeed, "nothing but good." First of all, it's delicious: thick, creamy, fruity and sweet (but not too sweet).
- Saturday, August 21, 2010
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Summer is a perfect time to unplug
Last month, I wrote about the rewards of disconnecting from information technology during a weeklong family camping trip. Since then, I've picked blueberries, skipped rocks, curled up with my 6-year-old and a pile of books, walked in the woods, and spent a gorgeous day at the lake picnicking with friends and watching the kids swim.
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