When my younger sister announced that she and her husband and children were moving, I noticed the wince come across her face when I asked “What ARE you going to do with Dave’s collections?” Now my dear Brother in law has a penchant for keeping absolutely EVERYTHING he has been given, owned, and purchased since he was, but a wee tyke! In some cases, he has doubles! One that may have been opened, god forbid, thus leading to the necessity of replacing it with a “mint in package” copy!! So there are many things, like a trivia game ... that he felt absolutely sure would be worth much, much more than it’s sticker price, in years to come. Two of those games now sit in the stack in the basement.
We would giggle about the mounting piles ... in their bedroom closets, in their first home that had no basement. As time went on, and a basement was to be had in future homes, more and more things found their way to the basement ... stacked high with toys from his youth. G.I. Joe’s, the jeeps they were sold with, Ice Skates, Baseball Cards, no matter that the individual’s card was worthless, it had meaning to him, obviously! And when her two children found the treasure trove of toys in the basement, they were “allowed” to play with specific toys ... ones that Dave had decided that the value would not be as high as in the case of others, that were still in their original packages. Many times, I was told, when he was younger, he would receive a gift, graciously thank the individual and promptly take it to the “Piles,” in the basement! You could almost envision the dollar signs and cash register sounds emanating from his head!!
This past Spring, my Sister decided it was time. Time to clear out some of the “Piles!!!” Sometimes, in the past, she had snuck things out to the garbage bags, at the curb. Only to find that Dave had seen her dragging something towards the garbage and followed her footsteps outside and brought it back downstairs, hiding it a bit more thoroughly from his loving wife! Or so he thought!
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