Clearing Out

As a young boy I accumulated many toys, things, sports apparel, and baseball cards. A Lionel electric train, and an orange semi-trailer truck.

I suppose my sisters collected dolls and Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. They were all more avid readers of fiction than me.

As I grew into adolescence and young adulthood all the items that marked my youth were moved into the attic and temporarily forgotten. College, the Army, and college again took over prime time. Then came career and marriage with all the attendant interest, effort, and dedication needed for success.

A time arrived to go back home to my youthful dwelling place and claim my past treasures. Yes, my mother seemed to know what I liked and she saved them all.

I was seized again with baseball card interest when my son Jeff grew into a baseball fan with an acute interest in baseball cards. Together we studied the hobby and the value added nature of rookie cards of the game’s biggest stars.

And again, most recently, the grand boys, showed an interest in my electric trains. It was most satisfying to see excitement and pure joy as the 1952 Lionel steam engine pulling a B & O boxcar, a SUNOCO tank car, gondola car, and a red caboose around the tracks in our basement.

Cleaning out the closet was done with great care by my mom. Some how she knew that the past would be joyfully shared in the future.

I reflect often on the pleasures of the days gone by by the little articles I have saved. The memories are stored in the closet of my brain and I always hesitate to clean it out and discard the things that mattered. Somethings still do.

Just this past Summer, James, our oldest grandson, commented to his much younger cousin, be careful with all those “Mr. Books”, those are a big part of my childhood.

It looks like three generations and counting. Care of past treasures in the closet of our minds.