Childhood Bedroom Treasure Hunt

A few days ago, I mentioned that I've been downsizing my massive collection of books. I spent Wednesday evening working on that particular project, and at the moment I have about two and a half boxes full of books to unload. Some will be passed on to friends for whom they'll have a particular purpose or meaning, others will be sold, and those that fall into neither category will be given to a local library's community interest group for their annual book sale. At this point, I've been through most of the books, and I've identified a lot of books to unload - still only a fraction of the entire collection, but it's a good dent.

As I've been going through my childhood bedroom, I've found both books and items that have reminded me of bygone days, bringing back memories that have laid dormant in one corner of my mind for years or even decades. Here are a few of the highlights.

1) A long-since spoiled, though completely intact and still-sealed, bottle of W Ketchup™ dating back to the 2004 election. I received this as a gift from my friend Young Nathan, and though the memory's great, I binned it because, let's face it, only a lunatic has room in their home for a nine-year-old bottle of ketchup.

2) A copy of Catapult: Harry and I Build a Siege Weapon by Jim Paul. This reminds me of my friend Super Dave (who, ironically, is the recipient of some of the books I'm unloading), who built a scale model of a trebuchet when we were in college, and who had originally intended to build a full-sized replica of a trebuchet until a back injury, budgeting, and common sense caught up with him. I didn't buy the book with him, but the book always reminds me of him. (Pictured is an actual trebuchet that I saw in March of 2013 when visiting Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness.)

3) Four binders worth of class notes from one of my history professors' classes. I had originally expected that these binders were going to be a bunch of religious literature I'd printed out from the Internet or purchased. Having realized that I neither did nor will walk the streets of my hometown as an evangelist, I had anticipated dumping all of it, but I simply can't unload those class notes, which were essentially textbooks on a variety of topics relating to ancient history. I was on the phone with another buddy, Big Red, and we agreed that we'd both bought each and every piece of literature that the professor in question had assigned, but had failed to read the vast majority of it. I'll have to figure out a place to put it all. (As for the religious literature, isn't it amazing how technological innovations like smartphones, flash drives, and tablets have changed the way we think about storing and transporting information?

4) A copy of The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock. I purchased this at a long since closed branch of Borders while on a quasi-date with a distant non-blood relative, around August of 2002. It was basically never cracked again. It will either be sold or donated.

5) A copy of Rick Steves' Italian Phrase Book and Dictionary that I received from my friend Kelly Rose prior to my 2003 trip to Italy. As much as I'd love to hold on to this, it's going to be sold or donated. As I have no immediate plans to return to Italy in the foreseeable future, hopefully it can help someone else on their way. As with Item #3, it amazes me how much smart phones and tablets have changed how we (I?) think about carrying information for travel. I can remember my 2013 trip to Paris, at which time I put the DLI's French Basic LSK on my Kindle, but never actually used it.

More treasures certainly await me as I continue the process.