When it comes to decluttering and reducing the volume of accumulated stuff we have gathered, I wish I could be more ruthless. On the hoarding spectrum, I guess I have a little bit of a problem because I find it pretty hard to throw things away.
In the last two days, we have had a new gas boiler fitted along with some new pipe work. Mostly this has happened in what I call "the underhouse" where I once imprisoned several parking enforcement officers.
The underhouse is a place for tools, wood, cans of paint, garden tools, jars, old books and papers and rolls of carpet. It's a bit like the anti-Aladdin's Cave. No treasure down there, just a mass of jumbly junk including things that our two grown up children dumped on us. I had to move it all aside so that the central heating fellows - Andy and Brett could do their work.
I came across an old folder containing the programme shown at the top. I brought it back from the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 - over fifty years ago. How could I possibly throw that away?
Below you can see who played on the last night of the festival. What a line up! The Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Jimi Hendrix and then greeting the dawn it was Leonard Cohen. Bloody brilliant!
Below, inner pages from the programme - recognising two of the festival's top acts.
And inside the tabloid newspaper there was an aerial photo of the festival site. An estimated 600,000 people were in attendance. Many more than attended the famous Woodstock Festival of the previous year. Can you see me? I am quite near the stage - about seventy people to the right.
Okay. I guess I will keep saving this particular memorabilia but next time I descend to the underhouse I really must find stuff to throw out. As I said before, I need to be more ruthless. Like Attila the Hun. I bet he didn't surround himself with junk.
Those were obviously the days! Luckily no pandemic in such a closely packed crowd. Throwing away stuff can be very liberating, it is knowing when to stop of course that can be a problem. Will your grandchildren be happy with the memories you leave behind?
ReplyDeleteWell, there's only Phoebe. I will have to ask her. (She's almost five months old now).
DeleteWhat brilliant Rock memorabilia YP. I never understand why people would want to declutter wonderful nostalgic items like yours. Oh to go to a Rock festival again.
ReplyDeleteYes, a rock festival! Limestone, lava, chalk and granite!
DeleteOne of my friends said that she made it a daily objective to put one thing away, throw one thing out and file a piece of paper. Sometime she had to to a weeks worth of it in one day (because dedication to that was not a religion), but it never made an epic out of the task of getting 'it all' back under control.
ReplyDeleteThat's probably wise advice. I will let you know how it went after a hundred years. Make a date in your diary for June 2121.
Delete"Ruthlessness" and 'throwing out junk" are oxymoronic.
ReplyDeleteI am an oxymoronic kind of chap.
DeleteOh my.....you saw Leonard Cohen !! And Joan Baez! I only ever saw the Beatles in the 60s. I say saw them because I couldn't hear them for all the stupid girls screaming the whole time. (I never went to a " festival")
ReplyDeleteWhere did you see The Beatles Frances? I bet you were screaming too!
DeleteI saw them at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester. ( where I was born and lived until I married aged 29 )
DeleteMy boyfriend at the time queued all night to get the tickets and met a girl in the queue . He later dumped me for her!! I don't do screaming!!
He was a crazy fool.
DeleteIt can be quite hard to part with some of the clutter we keep for sentimental reasons. We have recently had to be quite ruthless and binned boxes of useless things accumulated over our 40 years together.
ReplyDeleteCould you and Lord Peregrine pop over to deal with our underhouse clutter? I will pay you handsomely!
DeleteYour underhouse sounds just like my garage.
ReplyDeleteIf you hang on to that Festival memorabilia for a while longer, one of your children might make a killing on "Flog It". It's amazing what people will buy - you know what they say, "One man's junk is another man's treasure"!
Console yourself with the fact that Attila the Hun probably had an army of slaves to carry all his junk!
Eh? I thought the saying was, "One Chinaman's junk is another man's yacht".
Delete"Scan, photograph dispose" - free words of advice spoken by my loft (just after "how much more f-ing crap are yo going to put up here").
ReplyDeleteHow can I scan a children's rocking chair and fourteen old paint rollers with trays?
DeleteThe clue is in the word "photograph". Anyway, that rocking chair might be needed. Maybe the paint rollers too when your walking duties allow you to have a holiday.
DeleteI've had to declutter my living space for quite some time. Guess the pandemic was good for something - at least I got started lol.
ReplyDeleteIt's awesome that you've held onto that festival memorabilia. Look at that crowd!
I was a wistful dreamer back then - just like John Sebastian who also played at the festival.
DeleteWow, to be able to go back in time and attend something like that!
ReplyDeleteI am dealing with the same problem of hoarding stuff. I'm sitting next to a bin of stuff that mom saved from my childhood because they meant a lot to her and I can't for the life of me, bring myself to toss those things away even though I know they will most certainly be tossed when I'm gone. I have no particular feelings towards them but I keep them because they meant a lot to mom.
Given the size of your property, you could just put all that stuff in a big container or shed and simply leave it there forever.
DeleteRay Connolly (born 1940) wrote the screenplay *That'll Be the Day* (DVD).
ReplyDeleteSome years ago he was on his way to a funeral in central London.
A couple holding a street map asked him for directions.
Ray helped them find the place they were going to, like any good citizen.
After the funeral he went to buy friends a drink in their favourite pub.
His wallet was missing from his inside pocket, containing all his credit cards.
Moral: Keep your distance from any couple holding a street map.
Especially if one of them is a pretty girl.
Haggerty
P.S.
My London sister had her purse stolen in the South Bank Theatre cafeteria.
We were having coffee at a long table, her handbag was open.
A well-dressed, middle-aged woman passed by very close, and was gone in a trice.
The South Bank Theatre is notorious for professional pickpockets.
I am not sure what invoked this lesson in personal security. Surely it wasn't my blogpost was it?
DeleteIt was your copy of The Evening Standard, with the front-page story by the journalist of the day, Ray Connolly.
DeleteI hate to think of you and your readers, going to London after lockdown, and getting their purses and wallets lifted.
Sneak thieves will be on the prowl, when people have their guard down.
Haggerty Private Security
Ah! I have got you now John. Sorry for my inattention.
DeleteWell, that is a very good memory to keep. The way I sometimes decide on keeping or tossing something is to imagine what my children will say when they come across it after my death. If I know they'll say, "Good Lord- what was Mama keeping this for?" it makes it easier to throw out.
ReplyDeleteI should adopt that test too but I may still lack the necessary ruthlessness.
DeleteI like Tasker's idea, except after you scan them, you could sell them on ebay. I'll bet someone would buy them. And of course you have to keep the rocking chair for Phoebe.
ReplyDeleteE-bay? I don't know if I could be bothered with all that rigmarole Pixie Lily.
DeleteI know the feeling. There is an enormous pile of junk around here. I could get rid of it in a hurry but the Micro Manager has to keep it all.
ReplyDeleteThere could be a nuclear war. You never know what you might need.
DeleteEvery once in a while there is a nuclear war over the junk!
DeleteI can't handle crowds (and I'd say 600,000 constitutes a fairly big crowd), but.... what a fantastic lineup at that festival! I don't recognize a couple of names, but the others more than make up for that. I bet Jimi Hendrix live was a lifetime experience.
ReplyDeleteWhen he came on stage he played "God Save The Queen" in a wailing somewhat irreverent manner. This was around two in the morning. He died two weeks later.
DeleteWhoa, back up, we need the story in sentence two of paragraph two!
ReplyDeleteSome things we keep deserve that honour. Frequently it can be hard to decide, but I think your festival memorabilia is a shoe-in.
Put "parking enforcement officer" into my blog's search box and all will be revealed Jenny!
DeleteMy goodness! What a treasure! Please don't discard those wonderful things. They need to be framed or put in cold storage or something so they will last at least until little Phoebe can hear the story of what entailed that day. Please, please .....I will keep them for her if you don't want to! P.S. My favorite has to be Richie Havens or maybe Leonard Cohen. No, my favorite is both of them!!
ReplyDeleteUntil that festival I was hardly aware of Richie Havens but his set was brilliant. At one with the songs. At one with his guitar. At one with the audience. At one with the rising sun. Genius.
DeleteStuff is hard to get rid of because it's usually attached to memories and feelings. Jimi Hendrix is from my area!
ReplyDeleteShame that the authorities in Seattle chose to tear down his family home in Renton.
DeleteYou would think they would try to turn it into a tourist opportunity instead of tearing it down. :(
DeleteThat is some line up, would have loved to have seen them live especially Leonard Cohen and Donovan. My era. lol
ReplyDeleteBriony
x
It was amazing for a sixteen year old lad from Yorkshire. Blew my mind as they say.
DeleteOh Lord, I would NEVER throw those things away. That program might even be valuable. The old wood and paint cans, on the other hand, could probably go.
ReplyDeleteI am going to do a bit of chucking out day by day as I attempt to bring order back to the underhouse.
DeleteI have spent today helping to clear my stepmother's house after she died in December. Most of the items were from her time with my Dad who died in 1996! It was quite a journey, and I have brought back so many things that, quite honesty, he would not have bothered about, but I'm a sentimental child and they will be put out every Christmas till I pop off. Fortunately I have two sprogs who are nowhere near as soppy as I am, and I know it will all be off to the tip as I go forward to the Great Beyond. Happy days. 😇
ReplyDelete"Sprogs" and "soppy"? These terms suggest that you are English Cathy. Are you?
DeleteWhat a line up of acts! I can see you in the photo. You had very long hair back then.
ReplyDeleteYou have eyes like a hawk Andrew!
DeleteThose programs and papers might be valuable!
ReplyDeleteI think the programme could be worth a few quid Debby. I will sell it to you for two hundred and fifty bucks!
DeleteIs that the year things went a little bit sideways for a bit? Some squatters tried to break into the groubds or something like that?
ReplyDeleteAnarchist stuff happened but the vast majority of festival goers knew nothing about it.
DeleteMementos of such special events and times are not junk. They deserve to be kept and looked at from time to time. One day you will show the festival program to little Phoebe and tell her about what it was like to be there. To her, it will seem like a tale from a faraway past.
ReplyDeleteYou could start a little museum, "Yorkshire Pudding's Underhouse", exhibiting the most important bits accumulated over the last decades.
Great idea. Visitors would have to wear helmets to avoid banging their heads. I could sell plastic Yorkshire puddings as souvenirs.
Delete