The Urge to Purge
By Charles P. Eberson
Senior Moments
Life is a series of transitions. The longer one lives, the more transitions they may go through. I wrote in my last column about our son and his family moving away in search of more opportunities. This has had a triggering effect on my wife and I in many ways, one of which is, yet another purging of our belongings; the second rendition. Watching our son fill trash cans with items that will not be making the move, awakened me to the fact that at no point is he going to want my rather extensive collection of music CDs and 6 CD changer. My World Book Encyclopedia circa 1964 is not going to be the subject of curiosity I imagined and the books I saved for his children will not be making the trip to their new home. They will purchase whatever books they want when they are settled.
I have a difficult time separating myself from certain possessions, but this transition calls for a more aggressive approach to “The Purge.” My acoustic guitar that I swore I was going to pick up again, was offered for sale on Facebook. I sold it to an old, grizzled musician who looked like he had been around the block more than a few times. He was ecstatic that he found the exact guitar he has been searching for and put together a few riffs better than that guitar ever saw under my care. A happy transition for my guitar.
A slide projector to view my thousands of 35mm photography slides also found its way out of the house but what to do with the slides? After all, who is going to take the time to go through them? I then turned to the mother lode; the Tupperware bins of AAA tour books, maps, brochures and of course, Triptiks from our 1994 cross country camping trip. What pleasure was derived from flipping the pages of the Triptik over as the journey progressed.
It was such a treasure trove of information of places of interest and accommodations, that is, before the internet and the GPS. I was of the belief that without this source of information, any cross country trip by any of my children would be seriously lacking. For instance, would they know of the canoeing available in Ronceverte, West Virginia or the Cherohala Scenic Byway near Robbinsville, North Carolina? What about rafting down the Nantahala River followed by mining activity at the Gorge Ruby Mine? I have the pamphlets. Moving on through Indiana they could engage in the complete Amish experience at the Das Dutchman Essenhaus in Middlebury and continue on to experience fine dining at the Tippecanoe Place Restaurant in South Bend. I was confident they wouldn’t know about these fine gems. The Haunted House on Hill Street in, as the pamphlet describes, “World Famous Hannibal, Missouri is another destination that can’t be missed. Twenty-Seven life size hand carved wax figures of Mark Twain, his family and other world renown characters reside there.
Sadly, these pamphlets, plus many other sources of places of interest are destined for the recycling bin, victims of the technology age. It was fun going through all the printed material and reminiscing, something today’s generation will not be doing in the same fashion but I have cleared out a considerable amount of baggage and that is quite satisfying. The purge continues. Anyone looking for a wooden CD rack?
Charles Eberson has been in the newspaper business for over 25 years. He has worked as a writer, advertising executive, circulation manager and photographer. His photography can be viewed at charles-eberson.fineartamerica.com
