I am the designated keeper of things.

In my last post I talked about cleaning out my children's toys and collections of things, including rocks.
I admit I like to keep things too. I remember as the kids were getting older and they would clean their rooms (occasionally) and sometimes, but rarely, decide there was something they no longer needed or wanted. If we had the time, we would pack up the things and take them to Wilbur and include them in the family yard sale. Sometimes I also found things I could part with. As it happens, things have come and gone from our lives. Some things we remember and some we don't.
Sometimes when Noah was home on leave from the Marine Corps he would go through his things. I remember him giving away some of his clothes, taking bags of things to Goodwill and yes, even throwing some things away. But still, my boy is a sentimental boy - much like me. His wife has had to accept his obsession for old suitcases and cameras. I think she may have even embraced them to a certain extent, finding useful ways of using the suitcases and decorative ways to display the cameras. In fact, the old cameras may even have become a shared passion.
Recently they moved to a new apartment. I was talking to Monica about all of Noah's stuff. I told her that the day always comes when you look at things with fresh eyes and decide you no longer need them. Sometimes you even will exclaim out loud - "Why do I have this?!" There comes a time when you realize that getting rid of the things is not the same as losing the memories.
I still am not at a point myself where I can get rid of all of my childhood things. It is even harder for me to "allow" my kids to give up some of theirs. That is why I store them. I wonder where the three of us got this trait - this habit of keeping things.

Well, here is one clue. Several years ago I was visiting my mom and she gave me some stuff - a box of baseball cards and a little collection of marbles and cars. She had "saved" these things from the yard sales because she thought someday Noah would regret not keeping them. Also, whenever my mother is cleaning out her own things she lets me look through them first. She has also given me things that she had originally given my sisters. My sisters put them in yard sales and mom took them and gave them to me. There are also those things that mom doesn't want for herself or has decided she hasn't got room for, but she can't quite completely let go of - so they become mine. You should know - that of my mother's children, my house is by far the smallest.
It doesn't matter. You see, each family needs a keeper of the things. That is me.