Thursday, September 16, 2004

The Big Clear Out

Bert has been clearing out his homeplace for a couple of months now. It had become too difficult for his widowed mother to manage. She is now living in an all mod cons mobile a few yards from the old house.

The clear out has had its moments. His mother was and is a hoarder and there was stuff in there from the beginning of time. For instance she still has his old pram and other baby equipment. Babies were a rarity in her generation. There were four sisters of them and she is the only one to have produced a sprog. Imagine how spoiled he was. He says he wasn’t but then he would say that.

At first she followed him about, terrified that he would dump something precious. At least it got her moving and all her bric a brac is now packed away in the mobile. I was up with her one day and she said “I’m that vexed with Bertie, he never brushed that carpet before he rolled it up,” I said “Why would he brush it? Sure he’s only going to throw it on the ground somewhere to keep weeds down.” “What!” she cried, “He’s going to throw it out! That’s a good carpet.” This carpet was dirty beige with brown swirly bits. It was an excellent carpet in 1970 and will be damn fine for suppressing weeds in this century.

Bert is now sorting out the toys. He had already given loads away to various children. My own had a dig at them when they were the age for toys. The ones he has kept are mostly battery operated. Tonight he thrust a plastic tank in front of me and asked “Have you any batteries lying about would do that?” I said I hadn’t. He was straight into the van and down to the garage for a battery. Now all he needs are the caps.

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