SEEKING TREASURES
I walked into the room with a folding chair
in one hand and a big cardboard box in the other hand. Today was to be the day
to sort out the good stuff from the junk that I had been collecting for over 50
years. The room I walked into used to be my office. However two years ago I
moved my office upstairs and this room has sit, pretty much untouched for two
years.
There are boxes of papers, piles of papers,
on chairs, on the floor and on card tables. There is a box of “floppy discs”
(do you know what a floppy disc is? No it is not what causes a sore back.) There
are scrap books, photo albums piled in assorted places and even some lined up
neatly on bookcases.
“Well”, I thought to myself, this place will
look a lot different when I am finished tonight. All the junk will be in the
garbage can and I will finally know what and where the GOOD STUFF is.
I knew there were genealogy records galore;
I just was not sure which drawer or box they were in. I also was not sure if
they had been entered into the Data Base of my computer. Of course I knew that
it would take a little while to sort it all out but I also was sure if I kept
at it I would soon know what was there, that was worth keeping. If I really
hustled it might have it done by the end of the day?
I had been putting this off for a long time.
All the family knows I am a pack-rat but even at that I was pretty sure I knew
“about” what was in each box and drawer and in the piles on the floor and
chairs. I just needed to rearrange it a little.
As I walked in the door of the room I
wondered if anyone else had a room like this, or was I “one of a kind” when it
came to keeping genealogy , and other papers and “junk” that I might need in
the future?
I took a big breath of air and decided to
start with one of the bigger boxes, that sit off in the corner, not because I
knew what was in it but because I thought starting with a little box was the
easy way out. The desk with several drawers looked quite daunting and I did not
want to get discouraged right off the bat. I dragged the box out to the center
of the floor next to my folding chair and sit down to get started.
I opened the top and thought of an old
Christmas saying, “what to my wondering eyes should appear.” No it was not reindeer;
it was some genealogy papers that a gentleman in England sent to me sometime in
the 1970’s. They contained information on my family in England clear back in
the 1700’s. I then recalled that there were three or four times I tried to find
them in the past but could not. Of course the next question that came to mind
was.” have I put all this information and the source of the information in my
computer Data Base? The only way I could REALLY be sure was to go upstairs get
my Lap-Top and bring it down and check it out?
Of course then my mind told me, ”If I have to check each paper this is
going to take more than a day?”
I went up and got the Lap-Top, checked the
papers out and “what to my wondering eyes should appear Ha Ha.” I had all the
information in my computer Data Base; however I had not listed the sources. I
put them in and “miracle of miracles” I had only been at my clean out job for
an hour and one half and had ALREADY sorted out ONE PAPER. Mind you I say
sorted out because I could not bring myself to throw it away. I just put it on
the table to start out a new pile of stuff I need to keep in case I need it in
the future.
Well I kept hard at it until noon and I had
perused about one fourth of the first box. I had found some more genealogy
records, some letters I had written to my Mom when I was in the US Air Force
and a Merit Badge Sash with merit badges attached that I had earned as a Boy
Scout—some few years ago!
Of course I had not been looking for any of
this stuff in particular, but my intent was just to sort boxes and drawers to
try and determine what I had collected over the years and had I put the
genealogy stuff in my Data Base?
Well by the time 6:00 PM came around I had
just finished my first big box. It had become obvious this was not going to be
a couple of day’s job and probably not a couple of week’s job. I guess now I
can remember why I never finished it when I started it before?
I threw away a couple of newspaper clippings
(that were duplicates). I think I did that just so I could tell myself that I
had cleaned out some stuff and had thrown some away.
At the rate I went today 1 probably got
about 1/100th of the room cleaned out. It has become very, very
obvious this is not going to be a short time adventure.
Will someone PLEASE tell me I am not the
only one who has a room like this. I am almost afraid to start on the scrap
books and picture albums
W.R. Baldwin 9 Feb 2015
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