The Possible Source of My Packrat Tendencies

My dad was looking for some important papers the other day; and in his search, he found an old green metal box in one of the spare closets in his house.  Not sure what it was, he opened it and found...

 ...notes from when he was in medical school!!  :)

 Now let's do the math: my dad is 76, and he would have been in medical school, say, 50 years ago?  More or less, give or take a few years.

 I have some old papers in boxes in my garage, but none of them are THAT old.

 Don't remind me that that's only because I haven't lived for 50 years yet.  ;-)

Clearly Dad NEEDED to hang onto these papers because he USED them so much, right??  :)

In all seriousness, I'm convinced that almost all of us have some packrat tendencies; we just have different types of possessions that call forth the "I MUST KEEP THIS" instinct in us.  I know there are some who seem able to throw away nearly everything, sentimental or not; but I think most of us hang onto a few extra items that other people would question the value of.  I certainly do.

 Maybe I got that from my dad.  :)

Although to his credit, he didn't take too long to decide that after he glanced through these papers, he would go ahead and shred them, making them valuable once again (because we use shredded paper as part of the mulch we put on our garden).  Maybe I should follow in his footsteps and shred some of the papers I've got stored in old boxes in my garage!  :)

(But I have to LOOK at them first!  There might be something PRECIOUS there!!)  :)