My 1975 Zenith Chromacolor II TV
There are several things I really enjoy doing because of the nostalgic quality of the activity. They include making cookies using the stand mixer I grew up using to make cookies, making soup in my great-grandmother’s soup pot, sewing on the sewing machine that once belonged to a friend of my grandmother’s and watching movies on the TV I grew up with, a 1975 Zenith that looks like, as my best friend through secondary school described it, “the TV from outer space.” Mind you, it’s not because of the fact that any of these items–the stand mixer, the soup pot, the sewing machine or the TV–are of exceptionally high quality. (Although I do think the fact that they are all still around and operating speaks to the fact that they were well-made.) I enjoy using them purely because their familiarity gives me comfort.
This past weekend, Ben and I spent Saturday night organizing the basement. Because that what we do. Our idea of a good time on a Saturday night is assembling shelves, categorizing tools and getting rid of junk that’s been in the basement since the previous owners. Mind you, we’ve already been through several rounds of divesting the basement of stuff from the previous owners. I swear this stuff is like sauerkraut in your fridge–it just keeps multiplying. All kidding aside, though, I really like to organize things and get rid of excess stuff that I don’t need. It makes me feel lighter, and I get tremendous satisfaction out of being able to find things easily. In short, I don’t generally hang onto stuff I don’t need.
Except when I do.