For those of us with more house square footage than we really need, we typically have a closet, or maybe even two, filled with items of our past, and/or the past of a family member who is no longer with us, either by virtue of death or desertion. The purpose for the closet containing contents of unknown or forgotten origin is multifaceted. The fact is that it exists. For years, we have been considering emptying the closet, with a charitable or retail organization as the possible final stop for its contents, but for reasons known and unknown, we avoid tackling this task. Let us examine some of the reasons for our reluctance and reticence toward even opening the door.
What we do know is that the items within what has become an indoor storage unit have not been seen or used for quite a while. I shall purposely pass over in silence (a Ciceronian expression to stir the memory of the few Latin scholars among you) the articles contained in the basement, unless you had the good sense to finish it, or in the garage initially intended for automobiles. Back to the abandoned closet of choice! Here comes the fun part, where I dare share some of the contents of my forbidden closet, while believing that you and I possibly have similar items, depending, I guess, on our respective ages. Far be it from this author to be that presumptuous, but somewhere within the lines of the column, you may note some similarities.
In my mystery closet is a box of what we call photographs. You know, those prints of pictures we took with our Kodak camera and Kodak film, brought to the drugstore to be developed and then the finished product picked up a week or so later, never knowing how many of our 12/24 exposures would actually show up in the package. I seem to have two file boxes full of packets of photos, possibly at least 2,000 photographs. Sound or look familiar? I did peruse some of them, and you guessed it, I have no idea whose images appear on many of the prints. Next in this palace of nostalgia are vinyl discs, known as record albums, all of which I recognize musically, with memories to correspond. And, surprise, surprise, there are 78s and 45s in the closet too, in their individual paper covers, which of course are disintegrating. For some strange reason, I also found holiday wrapping paper therein. Who knew? The records have already been removed and economically shared with the appropriate retailers.
Those were most of the floor contents. Hanging on the horizontal pole therein are easily 30 jackets, 25 of which have not been worn in as many years. Some contain logos of schools where I have worked, others contain logos related to freebie offers from a noted sports magazine. Other pieces of outerwear are merely purchases from department stores, some of which are no longer in business. Any more similarities with your special closet of stuff, readers?
What is of deeper interest is why we have a place where we have stored possessions no longer needed and no longer used. It appears that for a myriad of reasons, we believe that one day we shall return to the trophies of the past, and again admire them with joy and satisfaction. Usually once the realization of uselessness sets in, we find a space to put these items temporarily until we are ready to dispose of them. Strangely, that day of disposal is slow to arrive, very slow. Can we agree that very slow becomes never? Perhaps we play similar tricks with our mind and the thoughts we entertain therein. Is it time to rid ourselves of at least some of the junk?
Whether we decide to clear out that certain closet, or free our brains of some the cobwebs which have plagued reader and writer alike, it is important to realize what we have placed there, and take periodic trips to what has become a storage location. Without a check of the contents of Closet X with some regularity, we are unable to ascertain the true necessity for the retention or elimination of its contents.
In the cases of all of our special holding cells, let us take pride in the events and people which brought these items of some worth to us in the first place.
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Peter E. Carter is a former public school administrator who has served communities in three states as a principal, and district and county superintendent, for 35-plus years. He is a board member for Delaware Botanic Gardens and Cape Henlopen Educational Foundation, and the author of a dual autobiography, “A Black First…the Blackness Continues.”
