I have a small art collection, a collection of books that grows no matter how often I cull, a spice and herb collection that has many deceased specimens. I gave my record collection away about five minutes before I learned of the turntable that plugs into a USB port. None of these collections is unusual.
The woman's dusty collection is not so familiar, and I wonder how many of us have or have had such a cache.
I call it the dusty collection because it is made up of sports/game equipment entirely related to a woman's former boyfriends/spouses/partners. Most of it is never used more than once or twice. Bye-bye- boyfriend, bye-bye gear.
Over many, many years, I have had badminton and tennis raquets, balls and shuttlecocks, golf clubs, softball paraphenalia, a rifle, shotgun, and hunting knife, various helmets, and hiking boots. I have dragged some part of the dusty collection between apartments and across the country more than once.
All of that stuff cost a fair chunk of change - I don't even want to add it all up! That's part of hanging onto all of it for a long time. It also is a kind of archive and part of one's identity.
I gave up my dusty collection many years ago, ironically, when I bought a house and finally had enough space to store it all. Perhaps it was an age thing, or maybe having enough distance from all that money spent or a stronger sense of identity.
Now my collection has skates, a bike, swimming goggles (all loves from childhood), and golf clubs. I also kept the hiking boots, as one can never have too many shoes.
If anything in my collection gets dusty these days, it's due mostly to procrastination - both about working out and about dusting!
