Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

As we get older we start to think about “downsizing” which is a nice word for getting rid of a bunch of the junk we have accumulated over the years. You know, stuff you didn’t need at the time but saved because you might need it some day.

Well, that someday hasn’t come yet and it appears it may never come. We have tried to pawn some of it off on the kids because they might need it some day. No luck with that!

Here are some of the things I have found in a recent search.

Film canisters. Remember those little black plastic containers for rolls of 35mm film? If you are under 20 years of age, film was what we used to put into a device called a camera. When we had filled up the roll of film with images we went to the drug store which sent it in to a processing company which sent back things called prints, slick paper images of the stuff that was on the developed film negatives.

At the Tribune we used to process all of our black and white film.  We didn’t have time to wait for the drug store to process it. We would roll our own 35mm cartridges for black and white film. Since the ends of the 35mm rolls could pop off we used the plastic canisters to keep the rolls in until we used them. It’s probably been 25 years since I rolled film, but I still have a bunch of canisters.

An old Gillette razor handle was in the drawer. Those can still be used but since I use an electric razor I really don’t need it.

An old Zippo lighter. Yes, back in my college and Army days I smoked cigarettes.

My slide rule. Yes, there was a day before calculators. We used slide rules then for computations in algebra and geometry. Now people use the calculator on their phones. The phone is more accurate!

Oddball coins and pins. There was a day when we went someplace a person wanted to buy something to remember the place by. When I got home those somethings got tossed into a drawer, a drawer that is now only opened on rare occasions just to see what is in it.

I have a U.S. Navy coin I purchased when we toured the U.S.S. Samuel Roberts, a ship that was open to visits on a trip to Mobile, Alabama. There are a few Friends of Glacial Lakes Park coins and a pin from the John Jameson distillery in Dublin.

Then there is a Glacial Ridge Trail pin, a Relay for Life Cancer survivor pin, a bunch of National Newspaper Association pins, a band participation pin from high school, pins from the Minnesota Newspaper Association, Outward Bound, a student Senate pin from what was then Moorhead State College, a Control Data tie tack from when I worked there and a signature plate from a old check writing machine. And more!

And then there is the brass printing plate used to make the wedding invitations for my father and mother some 80 years ago.

Of course there are some baggage tags from several different trips. And there are lots and lots of keys, you know, you don’t know what they are for but you keep them in case you need them for something you haven’t found yet.

Oh, and cables, lots of cables. You used to need cables to connect your computer to everything so a guy has to keep those, even though many are now obsolete, because you never know when you might need one!

There are lots and lots of pictures. Some have been put into albums, some were put into large envelopes where they have resided for many years. Which ones does a person save? Why? If you don’t recognize anyone, is it safe to toss?

That’s only a couple of drawers. I’m afraid I have a lot of work to do. And I still haven’t decided what to do with the above stuff. This is going to take a while!