{"id":2265,"date":"2009-07-17T00:44:34","date_gmt":"2009-07-17T07:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=2265"},"modified":"2009-07-17T00:44:34","modified_gmt":"2009-07-17T07:44:34","slug":"a-case-of-the-human-condition-im-a-woman-with-a-sprawling-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/a-case-of-the-human-condition-im-a-woman-with-a-sprawling-past\/","title":{"rendered":"A Case of the Human Condition: I\u2019m a Woman with a \u2014 Sprawling \u2014 Past"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A corsage from my sophomore year in high school. Photo by BF Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

The trouble with painting the inside of your closets is — everything has to come out of them.<\/p>\n

And then what do you do with all\u00a0your beloved stuff?<\/p>\n

If you’re me, you don’t throw it away.<\/p>\n

But what if your\u00a0beloved stuff is in disarray?<\/p>\n

What if your Girl Scout merit badges are mixed in with the portrait\u00a0of your father’s high school football team and your mother’s baby photos and\u00a0an old\u00a0World War II ration book?<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
A photo of my mother’s great-grandmother Harlow from Red Wing, Minnesota. Walinger Studio photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you’re me, you want to impose some order on all\u00a0your wonderful old belongings. And on your past while you’re at it.<\/p>\n

Which takes time. Lots of it.<\/p>\n

As a result, ever since we painted the interior of our house last year, all the good\u00a0stuff I pulled out of our closets has\u00a0been\u00a0sprawled around my writing room, taking up space, waiting to be sorted and put away.<\/p>\n

Twenty-eight cartons of it.\u00a0Calling to\u00a0me.<\/p>\n

Finally, yesterday,\u00a0I did it.\u00a0I organized my beloved stuff — and my rather extensive past — into twelve tidy, carefully labeled business boxes.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

\"Five<\/a>
Five of the 28 boxes.Photo 2009 by BF Newhal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“High School Stuff.”<\/strong> A corsage from a high school boyfriend, dried and flattened. My biology class insect collection with butterflies and beetles stuck through with pins. The note from\u00a0my social studies teacher, “You talk too much.”<\/p>\n

“Grandma Falconer.”<\/strong> My great-grandmother’s speech to the Michigan Women’s Christian Temperance Union.<\/p>\n

“My year in Heidelberg.”<\/strong> Coasters from a Bier Stube. Train tickets to Paris and Moscow. A telegram from\u00a0my parents\u00a0asking why I hadn’t written\u00a0in two weeks.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A photo of me as a student in Heidelberg. BF Newhall photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The boxes\u00a0go on: My years growing up in Detroit.\u00a0 As a twenty-something in New York\u00a0City.\u00a0As a hippie in \u00a0San Francisco. As a respectable, hardworking\u00a0mom.\u00a0 Everything in\u00a0a box. Everything in its place.<\/p>\n

And nothing, nothing at all, in the trash.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A card welcoming the dear baby me to the family. Photo by BF Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The remains of my high school insect collection. I got an A. Photo by BF Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The trouble with painting inside your closets is — everything has to come out of them.
\nAnd then what do you do with all your beloved stuff? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[332,333,245,334,335,82,336,233],"class_list":["post-2265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","tag-a-student-in-heidelberg","tag-cleaning-closets","tag-empty-nesters","tag-ive-got-a-lot-of-stuff","tag-long-life","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-saving-souvenirs","tag-scottville-michigan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}