Dan Clears Out His Room

Over the last few months, I tried to purge the boxes of stuff in Dan's old room.  I threw out high school French notebooks and calculus worksheets. I found a $50 bill in a box with lots of coins!  But at some point, I gave up making decisions and asked Dan to come to do the work himself.

Dan and his friend Alexandra arrived late Friday night.  He spent much of the next 2 1/2 days on the floor in his room going through six boxes of stuff.  He winnowed it down to 1 1/2 boxes with a large black trash bag full and the recyclable bin in the garage half full.  Sometimes he would say that I was the one to decide what to keep of the cards congratulating us on his birth or what artwork to save from 5 year old Danny.  Of course I kept the Mother's Day card in which he was quoted as saying he loved his mom because she answered his questions!

There were treasures or at least curiosities.  There was a photo of his first grade teacher spanking him--his choice for his birthday as most boys chose--spankings over kisses!  There was a booklet entitled Eight Reasons I Don't Like School in which he complained that kids didn't get paid and teachers did and they had the answer keys! 

He saved two Math Counts trophies--one of my proudest moments as a parent when I coached his team to a 6th place in state competition.  He also saved the South Bend Tribune's article featuring his team. All of his high school yearbooks were saved but he had looked in vain for photos in which both he and presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg were present.  He did find Pete's film review of r-rated Eyes Wide Shut. 

 Two volumes of Mac World Mac Secrets were salvaged because his name was in the index. He found and saved notebooks in which he had written computer programs by hand because our equipment didn't support the languages he knew. 

It was wonderful to have Dan home for a few days.  He was happy to add to Alex's list of states because as a confirmed New Yorker she had never been to the Mid-west.  He gave her a tour of Notre Dame and downtown South Bend.  I loved having both of them go to church Sunday with us. And they shared their  electronic expertise showing us how to use our blu-ray player, hook up a laptop to the TV to watch a you-tube video, find my flash drive items on my laptop, and more.  There is so much they do easily and we don't!

Sunday night Dan commented that it would be his last night in our house.  He mentioned that again in the morning.  I have been so caught up in purging and packing that I failed to recognize the significance of that for him.  Alex was perceptive enough to take photos of Dan and of us with Dan in front of the house.  His visit has been another big step in our process of downsizing and moving to a new life.