I went through my past life today, tucked away in 8 plastic crates.

I, the Splinter of pack rats have trouble letting go of old action figures (X-men, Ninja Turtles, plastic farm animals) meal receipts (from Hooters to Dicks), playbills, scripts, books, brochures, and any an all folderol from the 42 states and 11 countries I’ve traveled to. Sure some of which are treasured possessions I would never dare to part with, most is a myriad of malarkey, tsotchkes of triviality, craploads of well, crap.

So in lieu of lugging along what I’ve managed to keep thus far, I wanted to create a space for you and for me to share what I and hopefully you will be throwing out, donating, selling and just plain getting off our hands and out of our houses. I figure once mentioned here…

YOU MUST GET RID OF IT! Make a comment and take a trip to the trash. Store the memories in the mental filing cabinet, but empty the actual drawers and boxes for good (and Goodwill).

We as the official members of the Pack Rat Pack no longer need the stinky cheese.

The pale green house on Karen Place where I was raised in Edison, was sold more than eleven years ago and I have since Uhauled with me (from New Brunswick to Highland Park to Somerset to Jersey City to Brooklyn to Storage to Harlem) many of my belongings including two rubber chickens, a print of Bosch’s Garden of Earthly delights, the Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker, a broken laptop, a pair of flippers, 455 thank you letters, and a single copy of the article I wrote for Woodbrook Elementary School in 1989 to “bring back the soft pretzel” after they removed it from the lunch menu.

I guess I’ve always been afraid of missing my memories. My break-up letters finding their way to the dumpster, old birthday cards catching fire, scraps of poems rendered unthinkable, contents of classroom notebooks disintegrating to dust. But who am I kidding, everything I really need is in my head, right (and on my laptop) ? A mile high stack of papers and childhood pictures can fit inside a mini USB in the blink of an iPod. Adolescent accolades can now parade on prefrontal lobe. College keepsakes to be kept on hippocampus.

I think I can do without my taxes from 2002, my green graduation cap, and the thermometer I got in Calgary. Au revoir giant stuffed gecko, elephant boxers from Thailand two sizes too small. Adios certificate of achievement for participation in band. Sayonara 3rd place hurdling trophy, napkins from US Airways, VHS copy of Edward Scissorhands. Good Bye!

I am happy to report I have whittled the 8 crates down to four.

What are you getting rid of today?