daddy memories #7 (Sunday's post)

Today I spent some time in our garage preparing for our move. I acquired several things that belonged to my father, but certainly not everything as he was a pack rat.

Today I sorted through his cedar chest that was packed full of my brother and my baseball/softball trophy's, random jewelry and toys that have long since been forgotten about, and even the "labor and delivery instructions" and "how to care for baby" pamphlet from when my mom delivered my brother or I.

I also found our family's china (fittingly, Copeland Spode). Some vintage hood ornaments. Old t-shirts of my dad's. Locks of my brother and my hair, neatly placed in baggies and tagged. And our baby clothes, which we salvaged our first pairs of shoes and my mother promptly dressed Hadley in my Osh Kosh denim overalls.

Fortunately, my mother was there to help me determine what to keep and what to part with. I'm not a pack rat, but knowing that my father cherished these things was making me want to keep the 34 year-old locks of hair that is all dried up in a brown baggie.

So I parted with lots of things, comforted with the thought that I have so many great memories of my father that I didn't necessarily need these tangible things to keep his memory alive. I put a "free" pile in front of our house and posted it on Craigslist. Of course I did not include the china or the brittle hair, but someone else found interest in my father's treasures.

I'm sure, if he is up there watching me (because, really, who knows...) he was either saying "that's valuable" or saying "let it go." Something tells me, because that was just the kind of fella he was, it was the first comment.

But I feel freed from the stuff... Someone else is enjoying them because in my possession they would go to waste in a box in the garage, as they have for almost two years now. While I haven't parted with all that was my father, and this certainly was never my intent, I have memories that I need to place into boxes and fill my garage of my own children. I think my father would ultimately agree, even though he was probably shaking his fist saying "THAT'S VALUABLE!"