Change of Chores
Well, February changed her mind, and cold wet weather reigns for the next several days.
No complaints, though.
February, 1983
Since some February’s can deposit snow that we measure in feet, I welcome a few rainy downpours. When the kids were little, in one February we shoveled 22 inches from our downtown Annapolis walkways. (February 11, 1983)
Putting aside my gardening plans, I did a little weeding in the basement: sorting through boxes of old photos I should have categorized, scrapbooked, or tossed. Not only have I discovered triplicate copies of poorly focused pictures, I found so many slides of good times I can barely discern.
A click of the shutter, a crank of the film, and you’ve caught forever a significant bit of life. ~Willis Peterson, “A Philosophy of Seeing,” Arizona Highways, May 1973
Weeding in February
So many plastic bins of significant bits of life!
“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?—every, every minute?” (“Our Town” by Thornton Wilder)
Yes, I am eliminating the pictures of people my kids never met – or some whom I can’t exactly remember who in the world they were.
Don’t Judge Me
However, I cannot discard a small snapshot of my mother’s childhood friend, with whom she stayed close her entire life. I have memories tied up loosely with a woman neither my kids nor husband ever knew. Do you have such a photo that you can’t discard? You’ll make me feel better if you say you do.
Weeding through these bumper crops, I am labeling places, dates, and people that I remember but kids don’t.
I wonder what these grand memories will mean to those who saw the wonderful moments from a slightly different angle.
Will the images evoke different memories when they see them?
The best thing about this chore is reminding myself of so many good and pleasant times, even if setbacks and sorrow danced close by.
In the coldest February, as in every other month in every other year, the best thing to hold on to in this world is each other. ~Linda Ellerbee, Move On: Adventures in the Real World, 1991
Did I mention the folders of letters that are in as much disarray as the photos? I could be in the basement for the whole summer!
A Good Use of Time in February!
I haven’t organized photo prints since 1998. I want to go through them, but the task seems heavy and I find that I just forget about it for years at a time. I also have old papers my father never went through, from his father. Like you, they are in plastic tubs.
Every time I go down the steps, I still see those boxes, and have made only MINOR dents in disposing or organizing. Going through old papers is hard work, but you might find something nifty?
I am reminded of all that awaits my attention when we return home in April. I’ll start with the Christmas decorations?
Well, if we have a late March snow . . .
I know where those 3 copies of pictures came from, the ones we sent each of the grandparents which now come back to us and the one we kept for ourselves. My daughter already said she was down-sizing. I will still save them so she can decide which she doesn’t want. Mow I will have to write on the back as to who some of them are. Is that a transistor radio??
YES! My companion in the basement gardening!