Monday, January 18, 2010

Cleaning Closets and Nostalgia

I vow to clean my bedroom closets once a year. So I started this weekend and was surprised once again to find the leftovers of my life left moldering on back shelves. Old letters (real hand-written letters!), forgotten receipts, neglected to-do lists. Then, to cap off the day, I watched American Graffiti. "Where were you in 1962?" What a trip back in time that is for me! The clothes, hairstyles, music, dancing, etc., were right out of my memories of high school.

The movie ends with a postscript - graduation photos of the 4 guys who were the main characters in the story of that one long night in a California town - with little where-are-they-now notes. The gallant drag racer was killed by a drunk driver; the guy that gave up his "east coast" college scholarship at the last minute was a small-town insurance agent; the loony-but-sweet nerd was MIA in Vietnam; the last-minute college-bound guy was a writer living in Canada. That's what I remember from college - guys debating whether to wait around to get drafted for Vietnam or head for Canada. One guy I knew joined the Peace Corps - hope he did some good there while staying alive.

2 comments:

  1. Um - I was born in 1962. :-)

    I'm cleaning out my closet too! I wonder what I'll find in there . . ..

    ReplyDelete
  2. i was born in 1936! my closets have long since been cleaned and recleaned. i recommend it every 5 years at least. else they get too full of STUFF that, when the time comes to get rid of it, becomes overwhelming. i'm at that point now. but i can't part with my books. there are almost no clothes in my closet now. i've given away my working wardrobe again. back to t-shirts, jeans and shorts. and sweatshirts!

    i see ms 1962 has cleaned out her spice shelves!! yaay! and you're reading old letters from your closet. admirable!!

    ReplyDelete

What do you think?