Without a Clue
This process of exiting Ithaca is proving to be even more drawn out than I had previously imagined. I keep saying to myself that I have written my last story about closing down my 26-year home here and moving on, but something always seems to draw me back in. I sincerely hope this is the last of these stories, but I cannot promise that for certain. I have shipped seventeen boxes of Ithaca stuff, thirteen of which were to my hilltop and four to my sister Barbara. Those boxes, about half of which are filled with clothes and the other half with miscellaneous Ithaca junk, are all in the hands of Fed-Ex now. That junk is itself an accumulation of many years of distilled junk from a forty-five year banking career and what amounts to about a dozen homes from which I have moved my life over the years. Some of the junk is strictly Ithaca junk, which I bought for up here and kept up here and has not been the subject of numerous triage screens before this.
The way I set this up, I have left the heaviest stuff to travel home in the car with us, always with an eye towards what would and would not fit into the allotted car space without impinging on our comfort and travel space. That was driven by the logic that there are items which I would like to keep, but which are too heavy for the cost/benefit of shipping them. That would be less of a problem if I had sent a moving company shipment and/or used a PODS storage and moving system. I priced a PODS and besides the fact that they were in very short supply during what must be their peak season, it would have cost me about $4,000 minimum for a container that would have allowed me to take even more junk back than I really need. I figure that all my shipping has cost me less than $2,000 so far, so I figure I am well ahead of the game both in dollars and cents, but also in terms of having to deal with unnecessary junk. The heavy stuff I have dutifully wrapped in bubble wrap include three rusted metal garden butterfly stakes (one is actually a dragonfly), two Asian stone “doorstops” that will go nicely with our Asian garden theme, and several statues that are simply too nice to abandon and yet do not mean anything to the kids. There are also a few posters that I have wrapped and several wooden walking sticks which seem like they might serve a purpose in later life. That, along with our baggage will fit but fill the car with little room to spare.
As seems always to be the case, there were last minute items that Kim had to send, so we decided to send one more box today. It was not a full box so that is when I remembered that there was one other item I wanted to take from the house. Vacation homes are places that always harken one back to more traditional family values. Togetherness on vacation is too often involving screen time of one kind or another these days, but there seems always to be a hope that we might all find it fun to sit around and play a board game. Some people are game players and some people run away at the thought of them. I have been surprised by the amount of Monopoly, that old time favorite, the kids have chosen to play during this stay. This has not been a matter of the electricity going off and the kids not having anything else to do, but rather that they actually got into the game and played it as an alternative to being in the pool or doing something else, including watch kid’s TV. There certainly is something to board games that most of us like and I suspect it is the social interaction that comes with them. One night we laughed ourselves silly playing a game of Spoons, which is a simple card game with a musical chairs with spoons element. We had a lot of fun with that one evening, just barely averting a physical altercation among us.
Last year when we were here in Ithaca, communing with the family and before we knew that we would be so finitely ending our Ithaca adventure, we took a trip to Corning to show the girls the glass factory and participate in a glass making handicraft class. As we were going through the large Corning Glass gift shop, I noticed that they had several popular games made in high quality wood and metal rather than the flimsy cardboard we are all used to. I recall that they had Monopoly, the game of Life, Parcheesi, Risk and Clue. All of these games are old standbys with Monopoly the oldest and the most enhanced by virtue of the variations (like Cornellopoly, etc.) that have been generated. Life is a family game that teaches us about life choices and can get a bit too close to reality. Parcheesi is sort of a New England fishing camp game that is very traditional. Risk is a game enjoyed by teenage boys with a bit too much testosterone and global ambition. And then there is Clue. Clue was always a sophisticated game that hinged mostly on interaction, questioning and memory skills. This particular version of Clue was particularly nicely done with a wooden curio box layout with the various mansion rooms set under glass and then brass weapons and the normal array of character cards. It was quite a nice parlor game set.
I think we played the game only once or twice last year and this year we have managed to play it once. It too is a lot of fun. This board cost me somewhere between $200 – $300 and I like it enough to think that it has a place in our Permanent collection back on the hilltop. It probably won’t get any more use there than it has in Ithaca, but it will remain an impressive game set to use when we have weekend guests and watching TV is less fulfilling. So, with extra room in the last box to be shipped, I carefully wrapped the game set in bubble wrap and placed it on the top with the hope and expectation that I would be shipping part of the family fun component that Ithaca has represented to me out to my new and permanent home on the hilltop. At this point I think I have done just about everything there is to be done. Pete took the brass Homeward Bound sign off the rock at the entrance and that too has been put into bubble wrap for the car trip home. Pete and I went over all the rest of the stuff that will stay in place over the next several months. That is the second and last time I plan to do that because more will simply be overkill. I have gone over every speck of stuff and discussed it with the kids, with Pete and Kim. I know what everyone is taking. I know what the auction company is going to try to sell on consignment, I know what we have agreed will go to the Ithaca ReUse Center, and I know that whatever is left will go into the dumpster that Pete will order and that it will never be missed one way of the other.
I think I can honestly say that I end my twenty-six year old Ithaca experience without a Clue.