Downsizing and Saying Goodbye
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
ah
[Music]
most of us have a home in a neighborhood
and i said goodbye to mine
i wanted to do this and it hit me
in so many directions sometimes i was
happy
sometimes sad sometimes
i was upset and sometimes
totally bored
the home i said goodbye to is the one
i lived in for 30 years
this house has four bedrooms
an attic and a big old basement
my wife molly
two daughters five cats one
dog and i lived there
keeping that old house up to date was a
full-time
job and it was always smiling at me
we’re empty nesters and we decided to
say
goodbye to the suburbs and become
urbanites we found
a downtown apartment building that was
under construction signed the lease
and knew that six months later that’s
where we would be molly and i also know
that when she and i go to heaven it’ll
be much
easier for our two daughters
to clean out an apartment instead of
cleaning out and then selling
a big old house
we have lots of stuff the attic
that had become the catch-all
it was filled with bins and boxes
of memories and nostalgia
we were never hoarders but over time
all of the closets cupboards and bureaus
in every room including the basement
were filled to the brim
the garage became the staging area
i hired a couple of able-bodied young
men
to attack you guessed it the attic
they would climb up three sets of stairs
grab
some boxes downstairs out the front door
and put them in the garage our cars were
abandoned
to the street for me
opening up my boxes i was like a
kid at christmas i was
rediscovering treasures
oh my gosh there it is i wonder what had
happened to it
and i was deciding
which things were going to move into the
new apartment
it ended up with one box for charlie
and tons of boxes for molly
and i was feeling a little sad saying
goodbye
for the two daughters it was a
tedious cell phone review system
i would open up their boxes take a photo
of every single thing and text them
the review system was pretty easy thumbs
up
keep it thumbs down trash
there were so many thumbs up i had to
rent one of those
storage units and i was
happy saying goodbye to their stuff
photographs there were lots of
photographs and i
knew i’d be saying goodbye to many of
them
i took four other boxes and labeled them
charlie molly daughter one daughter two
and friends i’d grab a photo and quickly
toss it in the right box and
most of them i tossed into the trash
taking out those photos were
bringing back all kind of memories
and nostalgia was setting in
molly was reviewing the furniture and
deciding
which would make the move
all the good old comfy ones they didn’t
make the list
the two daughters wanted a couple of
little things and i lugged those to the
storage unit
to all the rest i kind of shrugged my
shoulders
and said goodbye
now all of this goodbyeness
was keeping me so busy
and i had a huge
realization since there would no longer
be a basement
i’d have to say goodbye to my tools and
my
tools are full of memories
and remembrances my father had given me
some of the tools
and my uncles and my neighbors nobody
threw away old tools
they gave them to me
can you imagine an old man
shuffling around in the basement talking
well i did and i was
sadly saying goodbye to my tools
now you’re probably thinking
this has got to be it but
worser was yet to happen
you see i have a hobby
i make picture frames
and now with all this time
how would i be happy and somewhat
productive
and then i realized real artists have
a studio so i rented an art
studio took my equipment there
and did not have to say goodbye
to my picture frame hobby
all right i have to admit
i have another hobby i play the
accordion
yes i still take music lessons
and when we had a band we would
entertain the senior citizens at
retirement homes
they were hard of hearing now
the reason i’m bringing this up
is because in the new apartment’s 25
page lease it clearly says
musical instruments not
allowed i doubled up my studio
now i can play my accordion and make
picture frames it’s hello to the studio
and goodbye to the basement
my hardest goodbye was to the
neighborhood
i’ve always been a neighborhood guy
each summer i organized a block party
whenever i was mowing the lawn or raking
the leaves
i’d stop and chat with whoever was
walking by
and frequently in the late afternoon i’d
grab a beer
wander around the neighborhood and hear
what was going on
saying goodbye to that was really
hitting
and one of the neighbors
still leaves a lump in my throat
lived right next door and whenever i’d
see her i’d say hi
what’s going on now
she was always busy and when i would
knock on the door and be in her kitchen
she would always say i can only be here
for five minutes
probably hoping i’d leave right now but
i’d quickly find out what her four kids
were doing
all about her job where they were going
on vacation
and if i’d be invited again
to their thanksgiving dinner
well we only
moved three miles away and i
thought i could go back into her kitchen
and chat with her
but i haven’t done that and if i did
it wouldn’t be the same whenever i
text or send an email to a
neighbor it’s totally different
when i run into one of them we smile and
chat and i hear all about what’s going
on
but there’s an emptiness and when i
moved into the new apartment
i thought i’d meet all the new neighbors
and it’ll be just like before
but that hasn’t happened sometimes
when i’m on the balcony i’ll see someone
and
we’ll chat but it’s not the same
maybe i’ll write one of those books
moving for dummies and if i
do there’ll be a big chapter on
saying goodbye
i learned a lot the good the bad
and the bittersweet and
no one had ever told me i’d be
saying goodbye
well if sometime
you’re walking around downtown and you
see a tall apartment building and
up on the top there’s a balcony
and on the balcony someone’s there with
a beer
that’s me smile
wave and be sure to say
[Music]
goodbye
[Music]
you