I was amused to hear recently that archeologists had unearthed some salacious graffiti in Pompeii. I am not sure why this gladdens my heart so much, but it does. It also makes me wonder what future generations, or visitors from outer space — if there are any of either — will make of our civilization based on what we leave behind.
So, I looked around our place, which we have owned for over 50 years. What might future anthropologists surmise about the people living in our house, given the detritus that abounds? In our living room there is a coffee table facing a couch with two end tables. All three tables have drawers. With trepidation, I opened each drawer — something I have not done in years — and examined the contents.
I found two decks of cards (probably incomplete — I did not count them), a mini-cribbage board, two sets of dice (actually, a single die in one drawer, three dice in another), instructions for playing dominoes, a single domino, a blank Yahtzee score card, a small bag of marbles, a Mille Bornes French auto race card game, a bunch of jigsaw puzzle pieces, a Magic Marker, a colored pencil, numerous pipe cleaners, a single straw, strands of ribbon and twine, directions for a Shashibo Shape Shifting Box, a dryer sheet, ancient packets of Sour Patch candy, Skittles, and Jolly Ranchers, a tiny cloth hat designed for a cat (a very bad idea), numerous bobby pins (where did that name come from?), a card for a cleaning service I’ve never heard of, two clothespins, a few ancient batteries, a mysterious long screw, a broken porcelain something, a pretty little dish full of tiny unidentifiable things, a plug adaptor, a box of matches, a packet of 300 ornament hooks, two unused remote controls, and a handful of Comcast channel listings.
That’s not all. There were operating instructions for a radio that we no longer own, for a Radio Shack modulator (whatever that is) in Spanish, for a Panasonic VHS video cassette player that now resides in our shed (just in case we need it), and for a DVD-CD player that keeps the other thing company out there with the mice. Also two cables for something or other, a box of little paper creations that one of our grandchildren made and a tiny poem she wrote on a Post-it, a handful of broken Christmas ornaments, a listing of the local band lineups for the 2023 season of Far Land at the Beach, a gift tag, a promotional card for the artist John Koch, a lace doily, a wooden drawer knob, two tubes of glitter, a coaster, and an empty package of little Christmas lights.
If you are still with me and able to take an objective, analytical approach to the above items, what can you deduce from this aggregation? First, there are children, at least on a seasonal basis, and numerous games to entertain them; they also appear to be involved in arts and crafts projects and either ignored those horrible candy selections or were denied them. Still, they appear to be loved and supported in their childish pursuits (and one is a poet!).
Second, a holiday called Christmas is celebrated. Candles are sometimes lit — or a fireplace. Third, the residents appear to have a shaky grasp on technology, abandoning things left and right. (The directions have a hardly-looked-at aspect). There is at least one cat. The family does go out now and again and has some association with the arts. There was some interest in cleaning the place — but not much.
And that was the contents of just three drawers in my house. There is also a kitchen cabinet drawer with a motley collection of little-used tools and other paraphernalia and more drawers in each bedroom and the outer room/office; there is a crammed hall closet and upstairs eaves stuffed to the gills. I have been forbidden to discuss our medicine cabinet — a repository of valuable information. And our shed: another treasure trove of things that would reveal our lifestyle.
We are defined by so many of the things that come into our lives. What’s in your drawers?
