I can't help it. I'm a sentimental kind of gal. If something has any significant memory attached to it, I keep it. (Maybe that's why I like scrapbooking so much?) I have a cedar chest full of memories from my childhood and adolescence. I have all 4 of my high school I.D. cards. I saved my tickets to the Prom. I have a T-shirt from the 5th grade that everyone signed on the last day of school. I still have the head gear I had to wear in the 9th grade. Yes, I wore head gear but thank God I didn't have to wear it to school! Could you imagine? *shudder* I still have 2 teddy bears that were given to me as an infant. Oh, and I still have my 'B'. That's what I called my blanket.
I keep things. Pete does not. He's a tosser. We'd been married about 2 years, no children yet, and he was out in the garage cleaning up. I had a box of old dolls and stuff that my mom had saved for me and given to me to keep. He opened the box, saw a bunch of 'useless' dolls and without even asking, just threw them away. About a month later I went out the the garage searching for something and noticed my box was gone. I went in and asked if he'd seen it. "Oh, you mean that one with all those nasty dolls and stuff in it?" Ummmmm yeah, that one. "I threw it away". I just about died. Most of the stuff in there was no big deal. But my very first Cabbage Patch Kid was in there. And a little teddy bear my camp counselor had made for me. I was so upset that it made me cry. And Pete just didn't get it. He obviously understood that I was upset, but he just didn't get it. I still hold this one over his head. He doesn't throw out anything anymore without asking me first. But he still doesn't quite get it.
I also have a box of school work from Kindergarten to about the 3rd grade. Most of it is art projects or reports my mom had saved for me. My very first report card is in there. Stuff like that. Pete has threatened to throw it out on many occasions. Because the box is just sitting there taking up space and doing nothing. That's not the point, I tell him. He asks me if I ever look at it. And mostly I don't. It does just sit there and take up space, I get that. But that's not the point. It's just not the point! Dang it!
A friend of mine gave away her wedding dress the week after she got home from her honeymoon. Her husbands grandmother handmade the dress. Without a pattern! And she sent it to the Good Will. I could not believe it. She said, "Well, I'm never going to wear it again." Yeah, ok....but SO WHAT?!
Yep. I keep things.
So, when Pete got home yesterday and I showed him Jake's very first report card and the nursery rhyme book he made, Pete said:
"So, I guess you're going to keep that for a while, right? I bet I couldn't pry it from your cold, dead hands."
He's learning. :)
Oh, and the confrence with Jake's teacher went well. He's definitely not that kid. But I already knew that :)
8 comments:
I am totally the same way!!
I was just talking to my MIL about it today...and was saying though that if I continue on this path of saving everything - by the time I am 60 I will be one of those people with my entire house stuffed with boxes all around me :)
oh well...at least all our stuff will always be there right?!
I've gotten better at this than I used to be, but yep, I keep stuff too. I still have a computer in the garage that I don't want to get rid of because of the memories attached to it. Of college and my first mp3's and writing papers... ridiculous. I wonder if anyone scrapbooks that's not like this... at least a little bit anyway. Hmm.
When I found out that Pete thru out the box of dolls it was like a stab to my heart! I'd saved those dolls, moved those dolls more than once and prayed some day you'd have a little girl to give them to. It really broke my heart, but they're just 'things' and I got over it - sort of. I still have my dolls from when I was a kid; the panda pear my grandma gave me when I was 2; the 'teenage' dolls that pre-date little miss Barbie and the clothes my mom and grandma made for them. I still have my brush rollers and some lava from a trip across New Mexico - don't ask, I just can't give these things up. Better start working on Pete now, Corey, cause some day they will all be in a box in your garage! Sitting there taking up room not doing anything. Maybe you could do like me and rent a 10x20 storage unit just to have a place to keep all these things! Holding on to these precious memories keep them alive. - Mom
Pete is my father. My dad tossed an entire set of Depression Era glassware that my mom got from her grandmother. One of the ONLY things she got from her. AND worth a TON of money.
He's a tosser. The fact that we moved every three years only gave him more opportunity to throw all of our stuff away. That said, you should see HIS garage and HIS hangar...never throws anything of his own away.
:)
I keep stuff too ... my grade 9 grad dress and grade 12 grad dresses are hanging in my closet as we speak. It must be a scrapbooker's personality! Still can't believe your friend gave away a handmade dress (she might have had daughters who would want to wear it or at the very least LOOK at it!) YIKES! So glad the conference went well! Have a great day Corey!
Kim
I keep stuff and I don't scrapbook! I have boxes and boxes of all three girls stuff from school. Well, not really true, the third kid got ripped, cause her whole school years are in one box, and Jennifer has one for every year, through about the 8th grade! Oh and I think scrapbookers dream idea, use the old wedding dress to make a cover for a scrap book AND make a ring bearers pillow. Then when your kids marry, they can use "something old" from your dress! I didn't do it,(because I am not a crafty person), but I loved the idea. And the fact that Pete threw out your stuff may be why I still have my girls things and have not yet passed them on, I am afraid THEY might throw them out!
I am the same way Corey! I know why i keep it... someday when I am old and strangely NOT grey... I want my kids to see memories from when I was young. I WISH I had a report card of my gramma's or her wedding dress. These are part of the memories... I say keep it too!!!!!!!!!!
So glad to see my mom commented here, because I was just about to write that albeit a bit of a distant relative, you guys are most definately related. I am a tosser and is erks her to the 9th degree!!!! Thank goodness my husband is also a tosser. You know over in London calling someone a "tosser" is quite an insult, like if you called someone a big fat dumb-a here, so maybe I should call us throw-er-out-ers. I have a big box of trophies from my 14 years of dance lessons that my grandmother gave me that I am about to toss, as soon as I can find it...
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