With apologies to Jane, who gave him to me years ago, I threw away the terribly dusty Jerry Garcia doll. I kept the Smithsonian commemorative miniature Teddy Bear that sat in Jerry’s lap, that Al had wanted one of desperately at one point, but couldn’t have cared less about when I bought this one and brought it home for him from an ALA conference in DC.
I ripped open all the paper bags of buttons that came with clothes, and put the ones I thought were the most interesting into my button box. No shank buttons! well, except a few metal ones that are interesting shapes and I think maybe I still have the shirt they came on …. someplace.
I brushed the dust off all the commemorative pins and kept the ones I thought were meaningful, like Survival Graphics, and one I got at a showing of Judy Chicago’s the Dinner Party in Chicago in the ’80s (that I went to with Survival Graphics pals, come to think of it), and a few Grateful Dead ones. I tried to make sure I didn’t throw anything away that was real jewelry, no matter how tarnished. And I’m wearing a few funny old bead bracelets, and I added the “Be Like Ruth” bracelet I got from my friend Jenny last fall. She made them and sold them and gave the money to the Democrats.
Funny old bracelets I found while cleaning my dresser.
Now I feel weepy and nostalgic and kind of dusty. I think I’ll bike to the grocery store and recycle plastic bags. Fresh air should help a lot.