Jaci Dawn

It started with this:

Random photos of the cleaning I have accomplished only to realize I can’t just post these pics and *not* tell the stories about the items in the window or on the shelf or at the top of the stairs. For one thing, the stupid carpet didn’t come clean despite my efforts (the only carpet in the house and I hate it). For a second thing, there are too many memories and sentimental values assigned to the objects in the window, on the shelf, and at the top of the stairs.

I’ll eventually have to deal with the two boxes at the top of the stairs: the “Star” thread display case and the “Fairy” soap case. And I don’t want to.

Dad’s been gone for 8 years this May. Mom has been gone for 24 years this June. I *have* to deal with it sometime.

Dad’s entire collection of Lions’ Club pins is stored in the Star display case. I haven’t counted how many pins. There are a lot of duplicates. There is a lot of Lions’ Club history. There’s not a lot of monetary value, if eBay is to be believed (I didn’t see any bids on most of the pins I searched for, but they were priced individually between $2 and $4 – unless they were really old. None of these are really old.

All of them are intricate works of art.

Dad collected pins from different states, a few countries, for different accomplishments, for different people in office (Lions’ Club offices), and for nearly every burg in Nevada. I haven’t even looked at the 100% attendance pins. Oh – and I’ve given four pins away to grandchildren, allowing them to take their choice.

I think Dad would have liked that – me, passing on his collection to small children. Or maybe not. He had a love/hate relationship with small people.

But, really, what do I do?

Some of these are really cool pins!

I don’t have the walls to display them on, but I think I will rethink how the Star case is set up to display the pins. The duplicates will have to go away, which means eBay. The ones with names on will also be put up on eBay, I think. They are of no historic value to me, but maybe to the ancestors – and I’m not spending the time to track down those people even if I probably should.

The best I can do is to organize the pins, wipe the dust off of them, and set them up in a better display. They do bring me joy, but they may bring my heirs headaches. I’m pretty certain there are over 300 pins here.

And the contents of the Fairy Soap box? Old country/western cassettes. I don’t even want to think about that. I’ll be converting those to digital.