Thursday, July 14, 2011

"Our house in the middle of the street" Maddness 1982

Hola me amigo's and amigas!Hope you all had a safe and happy 4th of July. Mine was very quiet, which was great. Dan and I cooked ribs and chicken wings on the grill and that was the extend of our excitement which works for me. For some reason right after the 4th I got a bug up my butt about cleanng. Now not that I don't clean, I do the regular stuff like scrub floors,dust,run the sweeper all that kind of stuff. My bug instructed me to throw things away, throw things away I did! Now you have to remember I live in the house that my parents lived in and my grandparents lived in and on top of it all I have stuff from my other grandparents. So out came my shredder, which by the way Gracie and Lacie hate! I found that I had every canceled check my mother ever got back from the bank. I had every bank statment for myself going 15 years back. Shred, Shred,Shred! I felt like Oliver North and Fawn Hall and kept looking over my shoulder to make sure the government was not going to come and take me. While I was at it I removed several tags from pillows and comforters. I don't know how many agencies might come after me now! I found many wonderful memories as well, my Mother"s baby book with a lock of her hair and in my Grandma Bessie's handwriting of every gift recieved when Lois was new and who gave it. I found my Great Grandpa George's Autograph book from the 1800's. I found in it where my Gread Grandma Lizzie had put a lovely like note to him. It was so touching. I think my mother was a hoarder.Here is your fun fact, the deffintion of a "Hoarder" is : Pathological or compulsive hoarding is a specific type of behavior characterized by: •acquiring and failing to throw out a large number of items that would appear to have little or no value to others (e.g., papers, notes, flyers, newspapers, clothes). Yup, that was Lo!
It's been three years since she passed on, but sometimes it's hard to go through somethings because it's so personal. My Mom's stuff was personal, and crazy at the same time. The woman saved every death notice of everyone she ever knew! Maybe that's where my unnatural like of cemetarys comes from. She had pictures of people who I will never know who they are. I think she took other people's pictures in to give them a good home. I also have some amazing old pictures of family members from th 1800's, I'm one to speak, once I had a friend give me a box of books cause she knew I would give them a good home! Yup, I one of those crazies that things objects have feeling's! I found some amazing things I've kept. I have a Time magazine from 9/11, a People magazine from when George Harrison died (I'm still looking for my John Lennon People magazine from when he died and I know I have it, I know I just put it someplace for safe keeping!) I also have a Newspaper from the day the last Harry Potter came out! I found beautiful things like a envelope with dried rose petals from the first bouquet of roses that Dan gave me. I have every card we ever sent to each other and every email we ever sent to one and other. I have the last card my Mom ever sent me and one that I found that she had bought for me but didn't have a chance to send. I have post cards from all over the place. I have pictures from Germany from my Dad when he was stationed there and pictures of General Patton as my Uncle Tate marched with him. Don't know why we have them, but we do. Really, I think people just drop stuff off at our house so they don't have to throw stuff away. Anyone who knew my Mom knew of her love of yard sales. I have stuff no one else in their right mind would want. Sandy, if you are reading this, I think we lost in the flood the lovely piece of pottery from Slippery Rock that used to sit next to the door that we lovingly refered to as "the urnial" that I think Mom bought at a yard sale for a quarter, correct me if i'm wrong. When my 90 year old neighbor Mrs. Tepke, god rest her soul, was downsizing she used to bring stuff to Mum to look through. It was like a traveling yard sale! I'm throwing away dead neighbors trash! The last straw came one Saturday afternoon Mrs. Tepke stopped with a box for Mum to go through. Now, mostly Dan and I would have to haul this stuff to the Goodwill. Well, my Father and I snapped. There was a coffee pot that Mom decided to keep. We have three coffee pots at home and several in Slippery Rock. Daddy and I freaked and Dan just looked on like Damn, I gotta haul another box to Goodwill. Jim said this is it and so did I. I told Lois I totally expected one day to come home from work and find Ted, Mrs. Tepke's 90 some year old husband sitting on my couch because Mrs. Tepke put him in a box by accident. We suggested that she donate the damn coffee pot to Goodwill and she was very offended. I said I knew it was going to go to someone woman in Appalachia was going to need the coffee pot and then corrected myself and said, no she probably has a husband and daughter sitting on their couch and saying "why did you bring home a coffee pot, we don't have electricty"! Needless to say I have greatly downsized. I have so much trash and shredding that I know Dan's going to be embarresed on trash day to put it all out in front of our house. I know sometimes he sneak"s around the neighborhood and leaves a bag here and there from our house so people don't think we are hoarders. Suprisingly we have a very neat house, Lois just stuffed things into nooks and cranny's that people never looked!I kept wonderful things and memories aa I'm not heartless, but some of those death notices had to go! So, I know i'm not a Hoarder, but no way will I ever part with my email's, cards and dried rose petals. So my little thing to make you go mmmmmm is, throw some of this shit away before you die. Women, makes sure those old vibrators go into a dumpster unless you want to scar someone for life (not that I found anything like that) and men, throw away the bottle of Viagra. Otherwise some poor soul is going to end up in therapy for a very long time! So I just felt the need to share my purging (as that's what it feels like) with all of you. Take care and throw some trash away. xoxoxxo Pammy

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