Walks Down Memory Lane
More Than Just Stuff
Backstage with the Girls
I’ve spent the better part of this past week packing up 23 years worth of stuff into boxes, then lugging the boxes out to the Pod in our driveway. The Pod is pretty big — 8 ft by 8 ft by 16 ft. Right now, it’s about ¾ full, floor to ceiling, wall to wall.
I did set out to be ruthless in my packing, and for the most part, I have been. What I wasn’t counting on was all the memories all this “stuff” would stir up in me.
Our son was just 6 years old when we moved here. Once when he was nine or ten, he won a contest a radio station was holding. He was the sixth caller, and got the right answer to whatever question they asked him.
He won tickets to a Destiny’s Child concert at Nissan Pavilion, which included backstage passes, where he got to meet the girls in the group. Of course, being his parents, we got to go backstage with him. You may recall, Destiny’s Child was how Beyonce first achieved fame. She was pretty young then — as were we!
A Record of Albums
When we moved here from New Jersey back in 1996, I donated all my old albums to the thrift store up the road. What I’d forgotten about, but just came across, was that I had once inventoried all my albums in a spiral notebook. All these years, I’ve tried remembering what all I had back then. Now, I know.
As long as I don’t lose track of that notebook (I packed it in a box — but did notate on the outside of the box that it was in there, along with a bunch of books and what-not), I could go onto Spotify and download all those albums, so I have them all electronically, at my disposal.
Hidden Books Revealed
I kind of kidded myself, years ago, that I got rid of most of my books when I started using a kindle. Yeah, right! I might not have bookshelves surrounding me with hundreds of books, anymore — no, all those books have been squirreled away back in the “work room”(long since the Junk Room).
I just filled about 4 moving boxes with them, and there’s plenty more to go. It was like running into old friends, seeing all those books again. “Hey, I remember you! You haven’t changed a bit!”
I may enjoy reading books on kindle these days — I really do love how you can put your finger over a word, and up pops the definition — but, there’s still nothing quite like holding a real book in your hand. It’s a different sensation than reading it on a kindle. It somehow seems more real, even though all of the information and words are the same, either way.
A Matter of Principle
A real gem of a find was a copy of the review and edit I wrote for my friend Jim Miller, who was one of my many partners in crime in putting together the Basic Text of N.A. He’d written an anonymous account of the whole experience of working on the book, called “A Matter of Principle”, and had asked me to take a first crack at editing it, about ten years ago.
I first met Jim at the 5th World Literature Conference that was held in an old high school in Warren, Ohio, in June of 1981. I had been involved in the effort to write that book by addicts, for addicts, a basic text for how to recover from addiction, for a little over a year at that point, the entire time I was clean, in fact.
My housemate, George R. and I had been heavily involved in the effort. I typed 65 words per minute on an old Underwood manual typewriter. George would go off to these World Literature Conferences in places like Wichita, Kansas, and Lincoln, Nebraska, while I’d stay home and struggle along in my recovery, trying to hang onto any one of the seventeen jobs I went through in my first four years clean.
George would bring back a bunch of material that needed typed up for the next conference, and I’d type away like a mad demon, grateful to have something to do with my hands, and my time, to help keep myself from getting high.
I was fighting obsessions to get loaded for nearly four years after I got clean. I’ve always been grateful for that book project that kept me clean. Instead of drugs, I obsessed over words!
I was very honest in my review and edit of his book, as Jim knew I would be. I think that’s why he asked. We got into a good, spirited debate over some of my commentary on passages in his ‘book about the book’. At the time, I had admittedly been away from any 12 Step Fellowship involvement for a good ten years, and hadn’t been to a meeting, of any kind, in about 25 years. I felt that gave me an even better chance of being objective in my review.
It was interesting reading what I had to say to Jim in that review. I have since gotten involved in AA, regularly for the past four years. For the two years before that, I went to an AA retreat in Connecticut twice a year, but didn’t get back into going to meetings right away.
Jim passed away two years ago. I really wanted to go to his memorial service in Ohio, but had just had inner ear surgery and couldn’t travel.
Miles of Walks
Somehow, I have managed to just about fill that Pod, despite all these walks down memory lane I’ve been taking in the process. I walked a total of nine miles yesterday, according to my apple watch, and I barely ever left the house! At this point, I have been through every bit of stuff in this entire house over the past week — it’s probably been 20 years since I could say that.
My wife, Kathy, and I are so ready to move. We went from being perfectly content to staying right where we’re at for the rest of our lives, to not being able to wait to get out of here, so we can go to our new home in Falmouth, Va. We still have about six more weeks here before we go. At least they will be six very de-cluttered weeks!
