IS THIS ALL THERE IS?

The days I spend at my parents house I wonder, "what on earth were they thinking?"  Apparently my parents suffered a real fear of running out of paper bags and aluminum pans. The kind that Sara Lee coffee cakes come in. If these two items were of monetary value I would be rich beyond Bill Gate's dreams.

I am the only in-town child of an only child. My mom had no siblings and tons of "family heirlooms". My dad is one of 7 children of parents who had food and dirt. My parents lived in their house from 1963 until the end of 2010. In these decades they inherited my mom's "heirlooms" and my grandfather's Hamilton Beach milkshake maker from Murph's Bar and Grill and an Olympia Beer sign from the same establishment. My mother inherited everything from her parents and many things from both grandparents. YAY.

I have found enough hand stitched linens and quilts to need a cedar lined house. I have ALL the family photos. There are portraits of people I have never seen or met. Some of these photos were damaged in a flood in 1939.

My mother's mink stole makes a total of three furs I will have in my closet that will never be worn. They go with the sable hat that will never be worn.

Mainly though my parents kept odd things. Aside from the paper bags and aluminum pans there are Kleenex in every pocket, every drawer, every purse and at one point covered all the table tops. I found boxes of Kotex pads. My mom is 84. She had a hysterectomy when I was in 9th grade. I found a phone book circa 1963 from Owensboro, Kentucky. The phone book wasn't in the back of a closet but in a drawer with approximately 100 Kleenex, used of course.

My dad's office is a treasure drove of things from his life. Presentations on wing structure and flutter tolerance. Letters from Generals thanking him for his help on certain projects. Confidential photos from the 1960s of missile testing. Information about a MIG that was ferried to an Air Force base in the 1970s by a pilot who wanted to defect. Dad and his team took the plane apart to get secrets. I knew none of this. He was just a man with a slide rule and the ability to fix anything.

My parents apparently belonged to the book of the month club in the 1940s. They have hundreds of books. "Look through those, we found money stashed in my parent's books", is the advice many people have given me. My parents stashed Kleenex, book marks and old letters from people I don't know in their books.

They kept our report cards. Thanks for that. "Acts before thinking" was my biggest challenge. I did, however, "work and play well with others". That's because I wasn't thinking.

My dad kept every tool he ever purchased including ones that are now broken and rusty. He left a hydroponic greenhouse and all the information I need to grow "hot house tomatoes". There's a money maker.

I have found receipts from purchases of clothing in the 1960s. I have found checks noted as "feed for the arc". I have found copies of tax returns addressed to Truman. I found my dad's Navy medical file. He weighed 133 pounds in 1943.

The purpose of this message is: CLEAN OUT YOUR STUFF. Do it now. Don't leave 7,000 microwaveable containers from those frozen dinners. Don't leave every Christmas card you ever received. Don't leave every unfinished project you ever started. You children will thank you. Maybe not thank you but they won't curse you.

Now, what to do with 3,000 bobby pins...

Lillybell Blues