Boatcards and Memories

We’re cleaning out and sprucing up and generally putting our hands on every single piece of whatever in this house as we prep to put it on the market.

I opened up the window seat in our room today and pulled everything out.

A lot of stuff.

I touched hand-knitted sweaters and hand-smocked little girl dresses. Hefted an old camera bag filled with lenses that once upon a time were good. Made piles of bedding for Goodwill, and got a trash bag half-filled with useless crap.

In the mix was a ziploc bag filled with boat cards from our mid-90s cruise.

We were members of the Bahamas National Trust, but it expired in 1996.

Think we can renew?

There were cards from restaurants in Puerto Rico and a boatyard in Trinidad. Hand-drawn cards from friends. Lots of cards with ham radio callsigns on them.

No card with an email address.

2 of the cards were from boats whose people I saw in Annapolis this past fall; they’re both still sailing the same boat but my bet is the boat card has changed.

I found a Pelican Express card in that bag!

I know I need to be ruthless in my purging, but this is one of those I can’t quite bring myself to chuck yet. Jeremy and I need to sit down with a glass of wine and laugh and say “remember when” and THEN I can send them to the recycle bin.

The cards don’t hold the memories. They just jog them.

But the important thing is they happened.