The Keeper Pile

I couldn’t find something I was looking for in a drawer last night because it was so full of stuff I don’t use that I got fed up and started cleaning out the drawer. That’s usually why I clean something, because we all know how much I avoid cleaning anything. I have to have an urgent reason to clean. Otherwise stuff just sits there. Teen Angel started rummaging through my throw away pile just in case any of her stuff had found its way into the stack. I’ve been known to get a little carried away during these purges. She pulled out an old pair of pajamas that I thought were hers until I saw the monogram. Oh my gosh! My old pink pajamas. I had forgotten all about them. I love those jammies. They’re not at all stylish and are worn so thin you can almost see through them, but I love them. They’re cotton and comfy and I thought they were gone forever. I’m glad they’re back, and to think I almost threw them away.


There are certain pieces of clothing I just can’t part with. No matter how trends change or how many seasons pass, these few items end up in the keeper pile every time I clean closets. Usually, it’s for sentimental reasons. There’s the REO Speedwagon concert t-shirt I got during my senior year of high school. It was my first rock concert, and the first time my friends and I drove to someplace not so close to home without an adult chaperone. It makes me think of M. and C. every time I pick it up. It also reminds me of the crazy drunk guy next to us at the concert who fell off a chair. Good times. There’s also the Police t-shirt from the original “Synchronicity” tour in the early 80’s. That shirt is a classic. That concert involved a road trip with some very good college buddies that I never see anymore. It reminds me of them. More good times. I also have the tights to my college pom pon squad uniform. They have horseshoes on the butt because our mascot was a horse. Those are just too funny to throw away. I plan to keep those so I can pull them out of a trunk when I’m eighty and laugh with my grandkids about how svelte and wrinkle free I used to be. I have my eight grade graduation dress (prairie style), my senior prom dress and the hoop skirt that goes with it. I even have some jewelry from when I was about thirteen years old. It’s cheap and faded, and I never wear it, but I like to look at it from time to time. It’s funny how you can get so attached to old rags you wore twenty years ago.


I may eventually throw a few of these things away, but I doubt it. I don’t see them every day because they’re tucked so far away, but every now and then I stumble across them and try them on…when no one’s looking. After all, it’s a little disturbing to see a 40-something year old woman in horseshoe tights or a southern belle prom dress. I like the memories they hold, and the laughs they give me. They’re very comforting, like those old pink pajamas. Glad I found the pajamas. It was much more comfortable sleeping in those last night instead of the old prom dress.