Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Welcome to my Junk Drawer!

My mom had a special drawer in the kitchen devoted to just "junk".  It was a lost and found, of sorts, and also a go to place if you needed some odd thing for this and that.  As Mama went through the house, cleaning and tidying, she'd pick up small things and put them in the junk drawer.  If we lost a small item, the junk drawer was the first place to look, second only to my room (I was the youngest child, and I found my brothers' and sisters' stuff so amazing that I just had to take it to my room.  Okay, okay - I stole stuff!)

My Mama
What was in Mama's junk drawer?  Paper clips, safety pins, rubber bands, ponytail bands, assorted screws, nuts and bolts, nails, bobby pins, barrettes, push pins, a hat pin (who uses those anymore?!), a beat up hammer, assorted board game pieces, pens (some worked, some didn't), pencils that needed sharpening, batteries (that might be dead), old broken jewelry, interesting rocks we kids found and "had" to keep, stuff we didn't even know what it was or how to use it, earrings that had no match, rubber bouncy balls, a few jacks. etc.  She kepts the small items sorted in an old, plastic silverware drawer organizer, and under the organizer she kept obituaries that she clipped from the paper, coupons she would likely never use, our vaccination cards, and, off to the side, soup can labels rolled up in a rubber band (to give to the school for their fundraising). 
"The Paddle"

The most dreaded thing in the junk drawer, at least to us kids, was "the paddle" - a toy cricket bat made out of cherry wood - when Mom was really mad, you knew it, because you'd hear the squeak of the junk drawer opening, and you better run for the hills with both hands over your bottom!  The funny thing is, I only remember my mom using it once - the threat of it was enough to keep me in line!  The paddle was discontinued in it's use as a "board of education," though, when one day my dad thought it would be a funny joke to smack my mom's backside with it while they had a playful argument.  He didn't hit her hard at all, but tears came to her eyes when she felt it's sting.  She had no idea how much the paddle could hurt until then!  After apologizing sincerely to us, my mom only ever used it for drawing a straight line, helping to mark how tall we were getting on the wall, and other miscellaneous things it came in handy for.

I have vivid memories of helping my mom clean out the junk drawer every couple of years.  We never knew what treasures we'd find, and it was fun to relegate items to certain compartments and sorting through everything.

Now that I am grown, married and have kids, I have a junk drawer, filled with all the same type of things. I don't know how a house could NOT have a junk drawer!  Especially with kids.  It's strange, though, because when my kids have their friends over, and they hear me say, "check the junk drawer!" none of them have ever heard of such a thing!  But, they all love the idea, and I would like to think that they might start one of their own at their house. 

So, what does a junk drawer have to do with me and this blog?  In my life, filled with stress, commotion, kids, hubby, carpool, church, and everything else on top, I find myself needing the proverbial "junk drawer": a place I can go to put all the special little things I find here and there, so that if I need it in the future, I can hopefully find it in the junk drawer!  So here it is, my blog - my Junk Drawer! 

I hope you can find a few things you might need here, too.  And definitely leave whatever special thoughts or memories you, yourself have!  I just might need what you put in my Junk Drawer!

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