Homebodies - Still working on the back garage...

Details

Published on Monday, August 20, 2018

By Rita Friesen

Neepawa Banner & Press

Really! I have been in this home for just a little over two years. There are boxes that got stacked in the garage, because there was room. Those boxes mostly contain stuff that I should not have moved.

Throwing things away is difficult! I do find the occasional treasure, and now I either share it with someone who cares or re-purpose it.

The find of the week was a three inch silver pocket knife. Ed collected pocket knives, of all sizes, and I have been giving them to a daughter as they surface. With every handful, she shakes her head, takes them, but they are not the little silver one she is looking for. So, this week, in a box of mixed treasures were two more pocket knives, a silver one and a white one. In the same storage unit were several of the first books she had written. One was a hard cover, dedicated to her first nephew, all about school. Boys were bullies and when she grew up they would get theirs! The other was an alphabet book, also dedicated to her nephew. I appreciated their content and intent but her copyright laws were threatening. ‘Punishable by jail. And I mean it.’ I packaged up her books, the knives and some early (very good) poetry and sent it to her. I could hardly wait for her to receive it, and her response was exactly what I imagined. (the silver pocket knife was one she had given her father one Christmas. It was a long standing inside joke for them- not going to tell you about that jack knife I giving you for Christmas).

Still not ready to discard the scrap book with my ‘art’ from grades seven and eight. My pitiful attempts at form and colour have comforted my children and grandchildren. I may yet have a chance to show my great grands that their projects absolutely shine in compassion to mine!

I have long been a royalist. There is a scrapbooks of royal visits from back in the 1950’s, articles and pictures cut out of newspapers and pasted into volumes of books. That interest lasted a long time, I have magazines of Charles and Di, and I was most fond of the Queen Mum. I think I can find a place on the shelves for that box.

The old adage is – the more you have the more you have to look after. I am thankful that I was finally ready to part with duplicate shop tools, and thankful they found a good home. That cleared up counter space! Discarded rug pieces, broken hoes and rakes- didn’t even keep the handles! Miss a burning pile for I have bits of wood that I can’t throw out but I could burn! Slowly I am finding what I am looking for when I head to the back garage. Another week or two and it may look like I know what I am doing. Thought of setting up more shelving units, but that means that I keep more stuff, and that’s not my game plan.