Mom wanted me to fix a shelf in her display cabinet, but had bought the wrong size shelf clips so that was put off until she can get the right size clips. She decided that we'd sort through some boxes in the storage room in the basement instead.
Mom's also on a big purge kick right now. They have a finished walk-out basement that contains all the spare furniture they really haven't used since they moved into the condo. Mom's been talking to an antiques dealer and he's tickled at the chance to get some of the antiques. Mom figures since she is pretty sure Brother Deere will sell everything after they pass she's going to sell most of it now and enjoy the profits! I can't blame her, I would too!!
The boxes she chose today were the family records boxes. You know those boxes, ancient receipts from the Depression era, birth announcements, newspaper clippings, graduation programs, death certificates ... the entire paper trail from your ancestors starting the day they first arrived at Ellis Island (or in my families case, Philadelphia).
Mom stumbled on a card my deceased brother had written to our grandmother almost a year to the day before she passed away. That got me started with the tears ... the envelope containing the clippings from his first hair cut did both Mom and me in.
After we had a good cry over my brother, Mom gave me some of his things to sell online. Some rock and roll buttons from the 80s, some college hockey felt pennants, some still in the box Hallmark ornaments from the 70s, and an autographed baseball, obviously a Detroit Tigers baseball. It took some research once I got home to determine it's from 1984. It's a machine autographed ball, so not as valuable as a hand signed ball would be, but I did promise her I'd sell it and not keep it for myself. She knows how sentimental I can be, especially when it comes to this particular brother. Good thing I really can't stand baseball, or it'd be a hard promise for me to keep.
The rock and roll buttons I gave to DIL ... she collects buttons and it just so happens she loves a few of the bands on the buttons ... J. Geils Band, Aerosmith, Rolling Stones and ... and ... geesh ... ummm ... oh yeah ... Led Zeppelin and Van Halen. She's already put them on her black vest with her other "antique" rock and roll buttons.
Wish I could say the same about the hockey pennants. I'm a hockey lover from way back, and a few of these pennants actually have a lot of sentimental value to me. I may keep one or two, but the other dozen or so I'll have to keep reminding myself that you'd not find felt hockey pennants in the pages of Better Homes And Gardens - unless it's in a boy's sports themed room, and since I'm not gonna decorate for little boys any more I don't need to keep them. Oy, I just had a thought ... I DO have two (and a half) grandsons who will have their own rooms to decorate. I wonder if they'd appreciate them, or destroy them ...
Getting ready to leave, Mom asked if I could unload the groceries from her van. Sure ... no problem. I wish she'd warned me about the full garbage bag of empty pop cans that were in there! I knocked them over and (no kidding) about fifty cans ended up all over the place. Mom laughed and told me she wasn't going to help me clean up my mess! After I got the groceries unloaded, and the cans cleaned up I was told that I could take the cans back to the store and keep the money from them ... they'd been in her van two weeks and she kept forgetting to take them in for refunding! In Michigan cans and bottles have a ten cent deposit ... I "earned" over $10 by taking them back to the store.
Not bad for a half day's work. Some small things to sell online (more to come as the storage area cleaning progresses), some laughs with Mom and Dad ... and even some tears ...
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