The card you can't throw away.

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
I envy those anti-clutter people who can throw a Christmas card, birthday card or a baby announcement in the trash basket after reading it. I can't. It is a struggle to throw them out even months after the season but I force myself because I am descended from a long line of cat ladies and shoe box hoarders. Still, in my desk drawer there is a box of cards that have made it through seven moves and seven card purges.

I was looking at my very favorite last night. It was sent to my husband, a fourth grade teacher, maybe twenty years ago. It is in a bill envelope. The card is hand lettered and hand drawn. I have to handle it carefully because five quarters are still taped to the inside. The card says, in #2 lead pencil, " Merry Christmas and have a beer on me, Mr. Smith." It is signed Jose and there is a hand drawn picture of a frothy stein of beer on the cover.

I don't know whatever happened to Jose. He must be close to forty. I hope he is doing well somewhere, living a relatively sober life. I'd love to thank him for this piece of joy that he dropped on his favorite teacher but I can't, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Anyone have a card to share?
 

Lavern08

Sit Down, and Shut Up!
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 14, 2009
Messages
21,790
Reaction score
7,436
Location
7th Heaven
Sorry SS,

I'm one of those anti-clutter people who purge that kind of stuff twice a year.
icon11.gif


However, that was such a cute story about the card from Jose'
 

Deleted member 42

Making specific choices—keeping this very special card, vs. keeping all cards—is not the same as hoarding.

I'd have kept it too.
 

Caitlin Black

Wild one
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 17, 2009
Messages
44,834
Reaction score
2,928
Age
39
Location
The exact centre of all of existence
I generally throw cards away pretty soon after getting them... However, I received one in the mail yesterday that I think I'll have to keep. It contained a DVD of Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas. :tongue

This, from my dad and stepmum, who know full well that I'm 28. But anyway, I'm assuming I'll keep the DVD, so I should probably keep the card it came in too.
 

backslashbaby

~~~~*~~~~
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
12,635
Reaction score
1,603
Location
NC
My paternal grandmother always used to send little-kid type birthday cards, all throughout my life. She was a very unemotional-seeming woman (not into cuteness, quite strict, etc), so that always brought a smile to my face :)

I kept a few examples, yeah. I'm so glad I did :)
 

backslashbaby

~~~~*~~~~
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
12,635
Reaction score
1,603
Location
NC
Mine was usually cute little woodland creatures :D

This was a woman who was seen trying to annihilate a stray neighbor's goat in her yard with a broom, btw! She would have won, too, I think, had the neighbors not intervened ;) Eat my grandmother's plants and be damned!
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
now wait-- i am a great aunt myself and i still think of my middle aged nieces and nephews as second graders. i sent my 22 year old grand daughter a winnie the pooh christmas card just last week. i stuffed it with a grown up gift card but i could not resist winnie and tigger because she loved them when she was little! my college freshman g-son got a snoopy card with enough bills for a couple of six packs!!

we old folks are not senile , we are blinded by love for the children you once were! --s6 ps--hats off to your grammy, backslash! a goat can decimate a garden.--i say buy the woman a box of cherry bombs for christmas! or an air rifle.
 

Ken

Banned
Kind Benefactor
Joined
Dec 28, 2007
Messages
11,478
Reaction score
6,198
Location
AW. A very nice place!
... me, too, to a degree. Cards I get mean a lot to me. So I keep them for a few months and put them on display where I can view them each day and be cheered by them. Don't get many, so there's never shortage of space. Then I toss them, after giving them a last read. So I wouldn't feel odd about holding onto cards, even for a long time. Of course if you make a habit of that with other stuff too then it can get a bit much. Happy Holidays to all here, while on the subject :)
 

backslashbaby

~~~~*~~~~
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
12,635
Reaction score
1,603
Location
NC
:D Oh, she was never the least bit senile! No, she meant business with that broom, and she knew exactly what she was doing. I'm telling you, that goat was the one saved that day.

I loved the cute cards :). I loved how she was really so multi-faceted. You didn't always know that by just talking to her.
 

Siri Kirpal

Swan in Process
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 20, 2011
Messages
8,943
Reaction score
3,151
Location
In God I dwell, especially in Eugene OR
Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Very year we send a beautiful card (generally from the Met) and a newsletter. Several people have told me they've kept every one. I've been quoted in other people's newsletters, and you bet, I keep those!

I've also kept the one from the cousin who has never sent a holiday card to anyone, thanking me for thinking of him every year.

I've got a Chagall card from my Mom that she sent a few years ago out where we can see it all the time.

I love Christmas, even if it isn't my holy day.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

druid12000

You're out of your tree...
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Messages
7,213
Reaction score
507
Location
The dark side of the moon, making sinister plans..
I have kept cards for a while, even months, but then they get tossed. Except for the hand made ones from my nieces, these will always be with me. I also have two cards from my girlfriend that I keep by my bed and read from time to time. We're in a long distance relationship and whoever wrote the cards got our situation to a 'T'. I won't be throwing those out ever.
 

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 4, 2009
Messages
22,617
Reaction score
7,298
Location
Wash., D.C. area
I used to keep them all, but then my mom told me what she did with her grandmother's letters: She would keep the most recent one until the next one came. That way, she would be able to keep the last letter her grandmother sent and keep only that one.

And I love the Jose story. With Facebook and such, you might be able to find him!
 

mccardey

Self-Ban
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 10, 2010
Messages
19,213
Reaction score
15,828
Location
Australia.
Making specific choices—keeping this very special card, vs. keeping all cards—is not the same as hoarding.

I'd have kept it too.

This.

My fave is an essay my tiny daughter wrote about her brother when she was five. I don't have it here, being between houses - but I promise I'll post it one day. It is utterly everything about her on one little pencilled page of mis-spelling....