TheBanyanTree: Northern Lights, Preparing for the move

[NancyIee at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/15/04 9:59:38 AM Eastern Daylight Time, NancyIee at aol.com 
writes:
Even though the closing on my new place is June 1, and on the house I sold, 
June 16, I have until the end of August to move. (The buyers of this house said 
I could stay on as a 'guest' since they don't intend moving in until 
September sometime.)  Which gives me plenty of time to pack and move. Right?

Over the last week, I sort and packed a lot of things I won't be needing 
through the summer: and a lot of knick-knacks, books, cool-weather clothes, you 
know, just stuff.  I felt pretty good at the end of that time when I had eight 
cartons carefully packed and ready to go.  The stuff I won't ever need again, I 
took to the Goodwill.  A good job, I thought.

Then, I got to thinking about all the 'treasures' I had packed for the new 
place. Qhat would happen if they got lost or broken in transit?

Nothing.

I probably would not miss half of it.  How we accumulate and save stuff.  My 
mother and Grandmother were the same. "You can never know when you might need 
this again," syndrome.  I still have a couple of favorite T-shirts from high 
school days, and I've been out of high school longer than most of you have even 
been alive.  I have things the kids made in school. (How could I part with 
the pink hippo carved out of plaster of Paris by my daughter?) I have books  I 
liked and may read again, though I haven't looked at them in a few years. But I 
might, one day.  I have all the teddy bears I and my children had. I have my 
Toby Mug collection and the little colored glass vases and things from my 
parents' home. I have about thirty photo albums, some from my falks and the rest 
of my own. I have the tennis racket my Dad had when he played tennis in 
college. I have souveniers from all the places I traveled over the years. (At least I 
got rid of all the dog show trophies by donating them to the 4-H group for 
their county fair awards.) I have my mother's diaries and every letter my 
grandmother wrote to me. I have my mother's jewelry, not valuable in the least, but 
. it was my Mom's after all. I have the little wooden wall lamp carved to 
resemble a hatchet. My father-in-law made a lot of them to sell way back eons ago. 
I never met him, and it's the only thing I have of his. It's not attractive 
or even very useful . .but .. I still have it.

I have tools, some of which I don't even know what they are, but I might need 
them one day. I have lawn furniture that I intend re-webbing, a little table 
I wanted to refinish, a bunch of picture frames that might come in handy if I 
paint or get a picture of those sizes. I have my mother's 'good' dishes if I 
ever have the Queen come to dinner.

I am like a turtle, lugging along my entire life on  my back.

My Dad had the right idea.  After my mother died and his own health grew more 
fragile, he started packing up everything, one box at a time.  Whenever one 
of us kids came over, he would not let us leave without us taking a box.  When 
my father died, there was only the major things to deal with. We already had 
helped him clear out all the 'stuff.'

I really don't know how I'm going to pack all this stuff, and I only have 
three months in which to do it. lol.

NancyLee

NancyLee