Last Train Out ... with Megan Koon: The Joy of Everyday Use

I haven’t completely discarded the artifacts of my past. Rather, the things I have kept, I keep in use; and when I put them to everyday use, they continue to create memories–not only for me, but for my family.

In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” two sisters, Maggie and Dee, are at odds about the rightful owner of their grandmother’s handmade quilts.

Maggie has been chosen to receive the quilts when she gets married, but Dee wants the quilts to display as a symbol of her heritage. She is horrified that her sister plans to actually use them. As Maggie concedes, she explains that it’s okay–she can remember her grandmother without the quilts.

Her words return to me often as the years go on. I come from a family of “keepers” and souvenir enthusiasts. When I was in high school, I found a box of my baby clothes tucked away in the attic.

In my grandmother’s basement, I uncovered a time capsule of clothes from previous decades that belonged to me, my mother, and my grandmother.

As a child, I was encouraged to collect. I kept cocktail napkins from restaurants we visited on vacation, tiny plastic swords from frozen drinks, ticket stubs, postcards, and every letter and card anyone ever sent to me.

When I had my first child, I found myself repeating these behaviors. I kept a piece of paper with a circle scrawled on itbecause oh my gosh! She can draw a circle!

I kept a paper covered in scribbles–because oh my gosh! Look how she used two colors! My poor second child–I only kept the formal art projects.

When my grandmother passed, there was a lot for us kids and grandkids to sort through.

And when I say a lot, I mean we rented a full size dumpster, had it parked next to the house, and tossed items through the second-story window and into the dumpster, for efficiency. We never finished cleaning out the house; the new owners received an excavation site.

More from Megan Prewitt Koon: In defense of the handwritten thank-you note

I was raised to believe that it was absolutely necessary to keep mementos of the big and small moments of life if I wanted to remember them. Yet as I’ve grown older, moved, purged my closets, and sorted through boxes of printed photographs, I’ve found that I, too, can remember my grandmother without the quilts.

 • I can remember high school without the diploma. 

• I can remember Natalie’s 4th grade roller skating party without the receipt for my skates. 

• I can remember the night of my sixteenth birthday party without one of the invitations.  

Have I forgotten a lot? Oh, yes. But what sweet moments they are when I’m suddenly reminded of my buried memories.

But, back to Alice Walker. You’ll be happy to know that Maggie keeps the quilts and plans to spread them on her bed when she has a house of her own.

Like Maggie, I haven’t completely discarded the artifacts of my past. Rather, the things I have kept, I keep in use; and when I put them to everyday use, they continue to create memories–not only for me, but for my family.

• I pour from the Tupperware pitcher that my grandmother used for sweet tea. 

• I write at the butler’s table that once sat in my mom’s house.  

• I water potted plants using a cup from one of the best restaurants in my hometown.  

• At Christmas, I plug in a carousel and calliope that have been playing “Jingle Bells” since before I was born.

• I replace the water in the butter crock a friend gifted me when she moved to Colorado. 

 • My son wears the Mickey Mouse sweatshirt that was mine as a child.  

It’s awesome to think of the hands that held these items, the eyes that chose them, the smiles they cued.

Yet even more amazing are the memories they have yet to create.

TALK Greenville contributor Megan Prewitt Koon is a life-long writer and educator, and the author of the novel, “Sweet Divinity.” Raised on a northwest Georgia farm, she moved to Greenville for college. She is married to a proud native South Carolinian and mom to two lively kids.

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This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Last Train Out ... with Megan Koon: The Joy of Everyday Use