Columnist Ruthe Deskin: Facing another uprooting

Ruthe Deskin

Thursday, Sept. 14, 2000 | 10:06 a.m.

Ruthe Deskin is assistant to the publisher. Her column appears Thursdays. Reach her at deskin@lasvegassun.com.

What to keep and what to throw away.

There comes a time in all of our lives when we must make decisions about our worldly goods and mementos of our past.

It can happen to young families moving from one home to another, but senior citizens are most apt to face the emotional task of parting with favorite objects, old pictures, scrapbooks, newspapers, souvenirs and a general conglomeration of things no one else wants.

I recall one move I made from a home of 30 years. I had been the victim of two home burglaries and decided it was time to move to a more secure neighborhood.

After spending hours going through my possessions, I finally gave up in despair and called a local charity, Opportunity Village. Representatives picked up everything from old bowling balls to reclining chairs -- an entire roomful of items that had been part of my life for many years.

By starting all over, it was my intention to keep my life from being cluttered with "things." It didn't work out that way.

Items that are precious to me might have little meaning to anyone else. Old newspapers and magazines have always held a special fascination. Who would want a Liberty magazine of Sept. 17, 1938? Or a copy of a defunct newspaper, the Nevada Courier, dated April 8, 1947? Or a series of newspapers from World War II with headlines that chronicled the major events of the war?

Maybe the first issue of the Las Vegas Sun would be of interest, or Chamber of Commerce pictorial reports and street maps of Las Vegas from the 1950s. A couple of Fortune magazines of the 1930s and early Nevada history books will need a home other than mine one of these days.

And there are gadgets and doodads that have special meaning to me. Souvenirs from travels, gifts from friends, old dishes and a few antiques have been a part of my life for years. But who will want all of this when I am gone? My walls are hung with paintings by special artists and friends -- Lou Maestas, Bill Willard, Farrel Wallbach, Keith Ward, Pat Watkins, Ellie Gottschalk and others.

Letters from people I have known and cherished are bundled together in a box containing certificates, plaques, diplomas and awards.

Perhaps my dear mother had the right idea. If you visited in her home during her later years, and admired some object, she would say, "It's yours, take it and enjoy."

The need to sift through a lifetime accumulation becomes stronger as one grows older if, for nothing else, to save survivors from the painful task of having to dispose of material things.

I admit the subject of this column was brought on by the knowledge that, in a few months, the Las Vegas Sun will be moving to a spacious new building. I must make a determination of what to save from an accumulation of years of filling and saving.

And who among us doesn't have an assortment of old keys we have kept to unlock who knows what?

Maybe I should call Opportunity Village.

Quip for the day: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." (Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University.)