Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Cleaning out my Closet.

Today I decided to tackle a few of the closets in the house and damn, did I take on a huge job. Can anyone say “vintage”? I had forgotten a bag full of clothes that I had tucked way back in the closet and as I opened it oh my goodness, clothes that I had forgotten about laid folded inside. There were actually 3 bags of clothes that lay before me. One was clothing from my mother when she passed almost 25 yrs ago and a bag of my dads clothes, who passed almost 3 years ago.
I never kept ALL my parents clothing, just a few things that I could not bare to let go during those times…..well ok….there were more than a “few” things. It took me a while, only a few tears but many smiles as I slowly went through their clothing remembering them and all the different memories. I began to make a pile of things to take to the Salvation Army. It really was still pretty hard to part with things but I think I did well. I kept 1 thing from each of them that I could tuck away in my personal trunk.  I kept a belt buckle from my mother. Before mom found out she had cancer she had started to go on trucking trips with my dad. Dad was a long distance trucker back in the 70’s and 80’s so mom decided to shed the god-awful nylon dresses and flats and transformed herself into a true trucker’s wife. The jeans, cowboy hat, plaid shirt and a western style belt buckle with an eagle emblem. Oh how she cherished that buckle since she loved the Eagle so much. This belt had been inside the bag of clothes so I removed the buckle and placed a regular buckle onto the belt. I then put the belt into the Salvation Army pile.  Dad had been bald as long as I can remember, well not completely bald. He sported the Caesar look with just a small bit of hair from one side to the other. The top of his head was completely hairless therefore he would never be hatless out in public. He went from baseball caps; to cowboy hats to finally settling on the Brixton style hat in his later yrs. When dad was taken to the hospital, my step mother had to grab his hat since dad refused to go unless he had his hat on. This hat was in the bag of my dads clothing so I took it out and placed the other remaining clothing in the Salvation Army pile. I decided to keep these 2 items because they personally describe my parents in a way that puts a smile on my face. These 2 items now have a new home in my personal truck. I didn’t even bother to go through the bag that contained my cast off clothing since I had either “outgrown” them or they “outgrew” me! I took everything down to the Salvation Army used clothing drop box and then went to Timmies to toast yet another step in my personal quest.


1 comment:

Judy said...

What a fun job you had! And i bet a flood of memories came to you as you went through your parents' things.