Sunday, August 16, 2009

Disassembling A Household

Even small households like my father's require energy to take apart (almost like a black hole, albeit small). This will take time. One difficulty is that since there are three heirs, all three of us have to be present to make major decisions. That doesn't always happen. So, sometimes I have to be content with generalized cleanup duties, until we decide, for example, to keep my Dad's Listerine, or toss it, or give it to someone else.

Today (Monday) we were dividing up my Dad's clothes. I get some, of course, but not all (my paunch is bigger than his was). My nephew gets some, of course, but not all (a teenager's sense of style is different than a senior citizen's). Goodwill ultimately gets the rest, of course.

This afternoon, we took a break from our labors and played an old 45 rpm record that my Mom loved and she introduced to us children. It was an album of Tom Lehrer songs from the 1950's. We were raised with Lehrer's sardonic, sarcastic, insolent, and callow academic humor, and it was the greatest pleasure to introduce my 17-year-old nephew to great old songs like "The Old Dope Peddler". May these songs live on in the memory of his generation!

Life is sweet!

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