And for your entertainment...

Today, we resumed sorting through the studio. It has never had the privilege to be used as a studio, and has been a repository of all things family that came in from Laconia, Charlestown, and so forth. After we clean it out, we're moving the bedroom in there, so we can clean out the bedroom and paint the floor, etc.

Some of what we found:

P's grandparents' 50th Wedding Anniversary scrap book, a scrap book that perhaps Georgia Cheney kept (1889+), many pictures of all and sundry, a recipe book from 1931 (suitably austere, though the cover is red).

P sorted through photography equipment from college days, drawings and plans also from college and from Hughes Associates, a circuit board (perhaps he designed/drafted it?) that was not "printed" but wired in layers, many obsolete road maps and a geodetic survey map(s)...patched together...of New Hampshire....wallpaper-wise.

B sorted through boxes of boxes, all neatly labeled, and not used by their boxer since 1960, which is when my maternal grandmother died, she who did the boxing. Such delights as feathers for hats, ribbons, lace collars, and other fabric things. I thought to enumerate them here, but I have not yet actually LOOKED through them, saving that pleasure to enjoy with Barbara S and Sarah W sometime soon.

Oh, yes, I found more books...Volume II of Queen Hortense (I think I already gave away Volume I), Michener's Poland, The Story of the Pilgrims for Children, and others. Not as fun a box as the box of Nancy Drews, but more material for the church book sale.

The boxes labeled "purses" actually had purses in them, meaning that I had already sorted through those once. So we're getting there, in the studio.

As I worked my way through the boxes of boxes (sewing and fabric pieces, etc.) it occurred to me that much of that material had probably been sitting since maybe the early forties. I can't imagine my grandmother doing much sewing after my mother went off to college and marriage, etc. And then I spent a few moments musing on how clothing wears out. Remember, that my mother and I KEEP our clothing, even when it does not fit...we gifted many many pieces to Goodwill after she died. But wearing clothing out...the usual worn-through dungarees, elbows, cuffs, and collars...and clothing MUST get worn a bit in the wash and dryer. Why else would there be such a handful of lint to remove from the filter before every load? So clothing that is not terrorized simply washes away, gets thin, and goes into the ragbag. Well, not much as gone into the ragbag in my tenure. It's mostly still in the closet. 

That's another conundrum. After living in this house without a closet for so long, we build an addition 6 years ago that included a fine closet. But I have no idea how to use it effectively. Is that a reasonable excuse? No, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I ran across the box of buttons again today, too, ready to go through with Sarah and Barbara. quantities of shoe buttons, bone buttons from navy whites, etc. I sorted through them some years ago...at least, some of them...but it will still be fun to look at.

I'm enjoying these careens down memory lane, even when they're not my memories. I don't know why it's so difficult to get started on each sorting stint, but it's a lot easier when I discover that I've actually gone through and sorted it some time ago!