Le Sequoit

travel fairly light through this world, as least by American consumption frenzied standards. I have a small car, no boats, no skimobiles, no RVs, no ATVs, no airplanes, and not even the obligatory cheese head Harley. I'm no pack rat, either. Somewhere in a desk drawer are a couple things from Boy Scouts and high school, and a few, strange remnants from the 60/70s such as Exile on Main Street postcards and a photograph of myself with Sir George Martin. On my desk are a yoyo, a cheap plastic recorder (as in flute), a model hippie VW bug, a model Cooper Mini, a Rubik's Cube type of sphere (record time 1 min., 15 sec.), and a Tip a Day calendar for golf, currently set to April 17th, which was about the time my golf swing disappeared, apparently forever.

Downstairs I have built a storage shelf system about 24 feet long, floor to ceiling. Two boxes are my things. I'm not certain what's in there. Mostly useless electronic stuff, such instantly outmoded things such as a Marantz four track cassette recorder, bought for $600.00 about two years before one could get a tapeless hard disc recorder to do the same thing for about the same dough. There's an antique four track reel to reel down there, two. Not the cool TEAC stuff from the 60s, this one is from the 50s or even 40s, I don't know. I don't know why, either. To continue the digression, I own an Optimus DCC digital tape deck. DCC was an alternatative to Sony's DAT format. In a mini reversal of the VCR/Betamax outcome, DAT won and DCC, the technically superior format, lost. I still use this machine, bought for about $400.00, mainly to make exercise tapes. They sound so much better than an Ipod, trust me. Really. It's money, ... well ..., spent.

Where were we? Ah, yes, traveling light! I suppose my biggest toy is an Ovation guitar, followed up closely by a Fender Telecaster. Wait a minute, this was all supposed to segue into a discussion of memorabilia. I've completely lost the track.

Forget about all that electronics stuff. The sequence is: travel light through this world → no big toys → not much laying around → not much stored. There.

I don't have a lot of history in photos; I was never good at getting them to the developer, getting them back and putting them into albums, etc. That was true, at least, until computers came around. Now that so much of life can be organized with just a brain, a few fingers, and a good chair, I do much, much better with this and so many other such activities. Now there are folders and folders of pictures, cross referenced.

But these only go back to early digital camera days, with a few exceptions from the days of another bit of electronic trivia called a Snappy. This device The Little Hun was actually able to get rid of in a garage sale, and so does not reside in the aforementioned single bin graveyard downstairs. Probably would be worth some money on EBay someday. Oh Oh. Anyway, I hooked up this Snappy to my HIFI S-VHS camcorder and my Packard Bell Pentium I and captured stills from video. Very cool at getting the best of people, but lacking in resolution. The camcorder still sits on the closet shelf, patiently. The Pentium I still worked the last time I checked, and sits downstairs. Next to the Compaq Presario, which doesn't. Could be worth some money someday on EBay. Hmmm.

I'm a little amazed at this point there are no overpriced, underutilized scanners down there. Oh yeah, garage sale.

So you can see how precious little room there is for memorabilia on this tightly run ship. Where lies the history of my life? In the study closet, in a blue box, under the carousel DeLuxe Scrabble board, is a fully used set of official Scrabble score sheets. About 30 years worth. There are games between myself, my ex and her Maid of Honor. Games my with best man and his wife. Games with my son, The Little Hun, and her Littler Hun. Games with lovers, and their children. Games with my Dad, some of which I actually won somehow. Games from Brighton in Boston and Hollis, NH. Snipe Lake in Wisconsin. Antioch, IL. Miami, FL.

Scores kept in the hands of the people I've loved and always will. Better than photos, somehow.

Deeds, and not images.