By Liz, still too cold in the northeast
It’s April and (supposedly) spring although the weather hasn’t warmed up much in Boston yet.
Still, I’m ready for the warm weather and I’ve been getting that itch to clean stuff out. Which made me think about the whole concept of spring cleaning and all the potential opportunities for mayhem…because that’s what I do.
So Wickeds, I want to know – have you ever found something questionable during a cleaning spree? An old trunk in the attic with mysterious contents? Old letters that raised some questions? A creepy doll? A family secret? Tell me below!
Edith/Maddie: Ooh, I love this question, Liz. Hmm. It might not have been from spring cleaning, but I recently found that I still had my Japanese hanko . It’s a little round stamp with a person’s name in characters that people use (or used to use) as an official signature. One of the classes of businessmen I taught in Tokyo in 1977 had the stamp made for me before I left teaching them to come home – they had transliterated Maxwell into characters. I’m in Japan now and am looking around to see if hankos are still in use.
Barb: While cleaning out my mother-in-law’s stuff after she died I found a cache of letters. They were from a friend who had been assigned as her big sister, a system Northeastern University had for welcoming incoming female freshman. Constantly taunted by her male engineering classmates in those post-WWII years, my mother-in-law transferred to all-girls Emmanuel College after her freshman year but the women remained friends. I found the letter writer’s obituary online but she had a daughter. The daughter, weirdly, is a children’s book author and I managed to obtain her contact information. I emailed to ask if she wanted the letters. I warned her that her mother had very mixed feelings about marrying–not about the man, but about the choice to marry at all and the timing. She wrote back right away and I sent off the letters. She thanked me via email and said she loved having them. It was so gratifying.
Jessie: Once when I was a child my mother sent me to the back of our creepy attic for a rummage round for the Easter basket grass that she saved from year to year. When I lifted the bag it was in, it felt oddly heavy so I stuck my hand inside. Terrifyingly, I withdrew a set of false teeth! When I showed my mum she said ” I wondered what I had done with those.” Apparently, they belonged to her father. I still can’t look at Easter grass without feeling a shiver run up my spine!
Sherry: Oh, my, Jessie! But I’m glad you shared that memory because I couldn’t think of anything until I read yours! After my grandparents died we took a bunch of stuff from their house to ours. I remember sitting in the basement going through things and opening a black case. It was full of glass eyeballs that my grandfather had used! I think some shrieking was involved in that experience.
Readers, what oddities have you found during spring cleaning? Tell us in the comments!
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