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| (The Master Card File -- Purged) |
I am in purging mode.
It started at work in the
spring – dump stuff, get rid of things, eliminate old curriculum we’ll never do
again ever. Unfortunately, with the move
to the new school and the tendency for stuff to disappear from our desks and
file cabinets, I had to bring a shitload of stuff home with me or risk losing a
little too many of my possessions.
My house, small as it is,
is stuffed past its gills with more crap as these already cramped quarters
absorb my work life for the summer. I
need to get control of something. I need
to get something organized and managed before my head explodes.
VHS. Yup, this will be my pet project for the
day. I am going to organize and purge
the rest of the old VHS tapes that have been amassing since somewhere around
1980.
I have a lot of tapes with
everything from Civil War documentaries to a Blues Clues marathon. I also have a decent collection of VHS tapes
that I picked up for pennies when the local video store shut down and when
Blockbuster went under. I have two
copies of The Mummy and several
unopened, never viewed films like The
Thirteenth Warrior. I have some
well-worn videos, too, like The
Incredible Journey and old episodes of the Disney Channel show Avonlea.
Purge. Purge the lot of it. Gone, gone, gone.
There are several tapes
with nothing written on the cases, just the silver Sharpie “R,” which means “record
over these.” I check them, anyway. Decades old NCAA lacrosse championship game,
old episodes of ER and Mad Men, and lots of crazy old cartoons
like Action Man. I get to the last unmarked video tape and
almost toss it without checking it. Turns
out to be one of my kiddos’ sports tapes from high school. I mark it, put it into a cardboard case, and
place it on the sparse “save” pile.
When it’s all said and
done, I purge five paper grocery bags full of videos. I double bag them in plastic and haul them
out to the sidewalk for the trash men.
If anyone is dying to get themselves a used copy of the Marx Brothers
movie The Cocoanuts or two recorded
versions of Todd Browning’s Freaks, you’re
welcome to the bags. You might find a
couple of episodes of Sewing With Nancy
and some exercise videos as bonuses.
Get here early,
though. The trash is picked up around
11:00 a.m.
