Allen's Technology Museum Opens

 

   It’s January and if you didn’t receive the memo – it’s officially time to get organized – again.  The holidays are a time to decorate and generally make a mess of things around the house. This month is a time of reckoning.

   Apparently, January 2 was the official New Year’s holiday. For us, it was the official day to take down the Christmas decorations and pack them away.

   That inspired me to tackle a bigger project – my home office closet. While it’s never been spoken, it is the one place in our home that I take full responsibility (or blame) for. My wife would be challenged to guess what’s squirreled away inside but she might characterize it with one word – junk. I see it as more of a technology museum. 

   I have tackled this project before and made good progress.  I gave away hundreds of records and cassette tapes after I sold the 1980’s component stereo. Still, there are items I just can’t part with like the original scratchy albums by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and other rock legends. I no longer own a turntable but it gives me comfort knowing that they are there. Several hundred CD’s, a small stack of 45’s, a bunch of cassette mix tapes and one 8-track.tape round out the collection.

   Stored above the music is a digital camcorder that captured every moment of our kids’ childhood. I also have a box of the original 8mm video cassettes tapes and backup VHS tapes that have no value, since I no longer own a VHS player. Trays of 35mm slides are balanced on top of the video equipment just waiting for someone to say “let’s look at slides tonight!”

   The box marked cables is literally that - a box of mysterious cables with names like SCSI and RCA and Ethernet. I am afraid throwing out even one cable will lead to a regrettable chain of events.  For example, once people get excited about seeing my home movies and slides, I may need a power cord to hook up the projector.

   The showpiece of my closet museum is a complete set of Aurora H.O. slot cars that I bought used from a high schooler in 1969. I thought they would dazzle my son in the late 1990’s but the Mario Kart video game required no setup, offered more excitement and didn’t smell like burning oil. I’m currently hoping his children will be enthralled with papa’s smelly race cars but I’m not too optimistic. By the way, did you know H.O. stands for Half O, a model train gauge size?

   Your closet may not; probably doesn’t, have 50+ year-old slot cars stashed inside.  Still, there is likely a “museum” somewhere in your house with Barbies or grandma’s fine china or creaky Lionel trains that must be worth something. 

   Make a commitment to open all the boxes in your closet this month.  Dig through them and tell stories about their contents to anyone who will listen. Then carefully repack them into the closet for another year as they increase in value. Your kids may thank you some day for saving all that valuable stuff.

   Send your comments, not your stuff, to flipsidecolumn@gmail.com.