Memory Collectors

Do you have any Memory Collectors in your family? I do. My mom and my father-in-law are our two greatest Memory Collectors. These are people who love to have a trinket for every memory they have. They often give these trinkets away in an effort to keep the memory alive. My husband, Daryl, has a couple of these gifts from my mom on his desk. One is an old truck sculpture in memory of a day we spent wandering the hills of Eastern Montana and came across an old pickup truck with the rusty keys still in the ignition. We also saw a snake that day, and I must say, I'm thankful she chose the truck instead of a snake statue to put on his desk! We just brought home several things last night from an old place that Daryl's great grandparents homesteaded. My father-in-law was so glad that we were interested in these old things and gave him ample opportunity to tell us stories...which we enjoy hearing all about. There was a Red Book Magazine from 1914, fishing rods that still had flies with them in the box, records that were ancient, and a scrapbook with brittle yellowed newspaper clippings in it.

I love Memory Collectors for their simple pleasure in knowing that everyone of these things could tell a little story if it could talk. Sometimes, a Memory Collector may be told that they need to get rid of all this "junk". True? Maybe, but the tough thing for a Memory Collector is that then all those trinketts that remind them of certain memories would be lost. Oh, what to do? It's a crazy circle! But, when there is time to sit and talk about the memories, we make more sweet memories and keep some old ones alive. I, too, tend to be a Memory Collector. Daryl is too! We've kept a few things from special memories, and then have joked that "we'll just take a picture of all the rest..."