After several months of procrastination and gathering dread I at last drove up to Sebastopol to face the boxes piled in the basement. Cindy & Michael, who are renting the house I grew up in, had gathered up all our stuff (Mom's, bro David's, and mine) and stored it in the basement. I've made other trips to sort through stuff -- throwing some away, bringing some back here -- but the long pause since the last trip had me nervous about going again. Turned out OK. There was both more than I expected and less. Less because I was able to throw out more. I threw away the costumes I made for the Oz Convention costume parades. I threw away the puppet theatre troupe D & I had made. I threw away our old worn stuffed animals. And so on. When I filled up the garbage bin Cindy gave me some black plastic bags and I filled three of those.
I brought back boxes of paper -- writings, drawings, books. And a select few objects -- the dollhouse furniture Mom's father made, a ceramic teapot Mom made (it looks sort of like one of those women carved into a ship's prow, only instead of a face she has a spout -- it's actually sorta disturbing), a few strings of pearls (real or costume?) ...
I can probably finish the project in two more trips. Maybe three, as at least one trip will most likely be taken up schlepping all David's stuff to a shipping company.
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