Last weekend I went out of town and helped my mom get ready to move. As I boxed up (and got rid of) childhood mementos I felt like I was working my way through an exhibit on another person’s life. I don’t know which was more amazing to me – how much junk I’ve accumulated over the years or how much of my past I’ve forgotten. Some of the discoveries were pretty hilarious, like sand from outside Tom Petty’s house:
Tom had a house on the same stretch of beach as my grandparents and growing up I made a yearly pilgrimage to pay my respects. Slightly weird and perhaps creepy, but I was a kid… although this jar of sand made the cut. I guess I’m still weird and kind of creepy. Also superstitious:
I found a (Tom Petty) mug filled with just about every heads-up penny I’ve ever found, and lots of fortunes. In recent years I’ve begun to collect the heads-down ones to balance things out. I decided to pass on all this accumulated luck, as well as my impressive bottle-cap collection. I also discovered numerous unfinished art projects and a box filled with dried flowers…
… which I saved for notecards and album art. They’re just so pretty.
Uncovering my Phish collection was a happy moment – I have hundreds of live shows on tape and CD, plus some other nice bootlegs. As I still haven’t secured Jones Beach tickets I will happily trade whatever I have for Jones Beach – or Mansfield or Camden. Please message me if you have extras. As you can see, Phish got me through adolescence…
… definitely the light at the end of the tunnel that guided me to my own music. Which apparently I have a ton of – the most time-consuming part of packing was organizing all of my notebooks, CDs, and cassettes from over the years – the volume of this stuff is just overwhelming.
Mixed in with my notebooks I found one of my earlier writing attempts…
… and this slightly disturbing picture from Myth and Bible:
At the end of the weekend I had a lot of boxes for Goodwill. I find most things aren’t worth holding onto. It’s funny because I am really sentimental about certain things, like rocks, but then there’s a part of me that doesn’t care… I’m just not really attached. The nostalgia doesn’t go very deep. Not like experiences… like seeing Phish at Jones Beach in June (you can have all of my live shows – email me). I think this is due to moving around a lot and traveling, lightening my load. I’m also very conscious of what I bring into my life – “Is this going to contribute to my life or to the landfill?” All I really want to keep are my books, which are a real drag to move, so they have to be worth it – I filled up at least twenty boxes and I still have several stacks. Tucked in with them were one of my old favorites, though:
Some things are worth saving 
PS. “Swept Away” is a beautiful piece from Billy Breathes, a great album to start with if you are new to Phish.
