Telescopic Memories

Wow, before I started typing, I was not sure if telescopic was really a word.  It is!   The last couple of days have been filled with telescopic memories……….and it all started with the telescope.  John had one – once upon a time.  For years he has been asking if we have come across it.  We had not.  Kate has decided to have a yard sale.  She is coming home over the 4^th to manage it.  She has her dad organizing the hardware – tables, tents, wires to hang things on, and God only knows what else.

I have told her that I would go through all the closets and cupboards and pull out stuff that I do not want any more.  That is easier said than done.  First of all, where did all those extra cupboards and closets come from.  Were they there when we bought this house?  I don’t THINK so!  Secondly, where did all the stuff come from that is in them?   Who would have bought ALL those bedspreads and matching curtains? 

And she criticizes the way I dress?

It is distracting work.  I keep coming across things.  They are only things – but they are distracting.  There are the pictures from so long ago.  I cannot part with them – can I?  There are the drawings that the kids made.  There is the yarn design that John created.  It is a sailboat.  There is his entire Eagle Scout Project – from scratch to finish.  I cannot part with that.

We were not able to fool John with Santa - but Mike was enthralled - he never knew that it was his nana.

Life was so much easier when we kept them inside the fence.

There are books that belong to Michael.  His reading tastes were – and are - way beyond me, but I cannot part with them.  There is his framed picture of the Boston Garden and several hockey shirts……I sure wish I could have found them in time for sports day at Maple Avenue.  There is the army bear that he loved so much.  I think we sent the hockey bear to Lou – we may have to hand deliver the soldier bear.

I found the pumpkin Halloween Costume that we had made for Kate.  I cannot put that on a table to sell for a quarter – can I?  There is the baby duck hooded blanket – that certainly cannot go.  You see, don’t you, it is very distracting work.

It is the one on the right I do not think I can part with.

This one comes through on the worst of days - you can even break open a K-cup.  Trust me, I have done it!

Then there is the coffee pot.  David and I are disagreeing about the coffee pots.  I am disagreeing with myself about the coffee pots.  And no, no one needs to tell me that the person who bought the 17 coffee pots is the same person who bought all those bedspreads and matching curtains.  BUT!!!!!!!   I cannot get rid of the French Press.  When all the others are on strike, I can make that one work…..right?  I have no problem letting the Black and Decker model go.  As for the four Mr. Coffee’s, I will carry them out to the tables myself.  As for the three Gevalia Models with accompanying cups and carafes, no skin off my teeth.  I cannot part with the Kureig – even though  it seems to be leaking – nor can I part with the travel model Kureig that I just bought this week.  I might need it when I travel.  It is the Cuisinart one that is causing me grief.  I take it out - I bring it back.  I have lost track of home many times I have changed my mind.  It is out at the moment, but I think it is going to have to come back in.

So, you get my point, right?  This is distracting work.  This afternoon, I decided to tear apart one of my closets.  I was doing fine until I came across a dress that I came across last year when Kate was home.  I love that dress.  It is a size 14.  She suggested that it was time to get rid of it.  I was furious.  I love that dress and I might get into it again someday.  You have to know Kate to appreciate Kate.  She gave me THAT look and said:  “Really?  Really, Mom?  Even if you got into it again, don’t you think you are a little old for it?”  That dress stayed in the closet then – but I think it is time for it to go now.  It is a lovely denim sailor dress with a little bow at the base of the neckline.  If I could find the little bow shoes that used to go with it – I would keep it, for sure!  MMMM - I think the shoes got buried in the time capsule at CES many moons ago.  I probably should have put the dress there as well.

Some of the things that I have come across distract me for long periods of time.  One of them was the martini shaker that Michael gave me for Christmas one year.  I made very good use of that shaker.  It is a good one, because it is still as shiny as the day he gave it to me.  I looked at it standing in a cupboard next to a beautiful blue martini glass.  I had two of them made while visiting in Sedona many years ago.  For years, I carried those two glasses wherever we went on vacation.  Sadly, one of them did not survive a trip.  The remaining one stands next to the shaker each reflecting off the other.  There is no way that I can let them go.

Last, but not least, I came across the cup.  Ahhhhhh – the cup.  I bet no one in the world has a cup like this.  It has been around for years.  My sister Peggy received it as a present at a bowling banquet in the early 1970’s.  One Christmas, John wanted to give me a present.  Peggy and Mamie helped him wrap the cup in a beautifully decorated package.  He presented it proudly.  I opened it and managed to display delight – all the while wondering why the hell I was getting a pewter cup with my sister’s initials engraved upon it.  Each year, I opened a beautifully wrapped package with what appeared to be another cup.  Each year, I would express complete and utter surprise at the beauty of the cup.  The three sisters smiled.  When John was about ten, he asked the question of the ages.  ‘Why did I never use those cups?’  In that moment, I – not the true owner of the cup –  and not the instigator behind the ploy - had to explain that there was really only one cup – that he had been wrapping the same cup for all those years.  I think it was worse than the days we told him about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy – all rolled into one.  I am not sure that he laughs about it yet.  Well, we don't laugh about it much - he probably does not even remember! 

However, he will be delighted to discover that the telescope has been found.  We will hand deliver that as well.

Anyone want to estimate how much stuff I will really be willing to part with?