Still More of Rich's Old Files

Day 117: Still More of Rich's Old Files (and a Few of Mine)
Rich told me that I could get rid of all the files in the basement file cabinets. I almost did it. I recycled about five reams of paper, including:

• Graded papers his old students never picked up
• Xerox copies of published research about adolescents and risky behaviors
• Other Xerox copies of AIDS research
• Fifteen-year-old bank statements, loan statements, phone bills, and credit card bills

We both stepped on a different career path when we left San Francisco and moved to Ann Arbor to raise our children. This file cabinet felt like his archive, a record of a time when he planned to be a professor and a researcher rather than a practitioner. I'm betting Rich could write an interesting blog post about that file cabinet.

I kept only two thin folders:

• A lovely letter of support from his department chair at the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, California
• Chords and lyrics to songs he wrote when we were living in San Francisco

At five pounds a ream, our house has lost 25 pounds.