I save many things (but I am not a "hoarder"), books, recipes, newspaper articles, ideas for decorating, papers written in classes long ago and magazines. In the past I have subscribed to gardening magazines, Country Gardening and Country Living magazines; I have about 7 years of monthly issues of Victoria More recently I subscribed to Smithsonian , Country magazine and was given a subscription to Yankee Magazine by a friend as a gift. Being overwhelmed with so many issues, I have stopped all subscriptions with one exception.
Today I decided to look through a stack of Christmas issues that I have saved for years to see if I might get rid of some of them--While I know I saved them for a reason, today I failed to really see why--I know I saved some because of the recipes they contained and some for decorating ideas--today I admitted that I had so may saved recipes that I will never try and I since I no longer have much of my own space for decorating, I really did not need those ideas--
I chose 4 issues to look through and found a few crafts that I thought I might try (but probably won't) and a few recipes (including an interesting and quite complicated one for Birds Nest Pastry in an article entitled "Christmas at Winterthur) that I thought I might like to make (but probably won't)I read about different types of trees that make good Christmas trees, a little article about Poinsettias most of which are grown at Paul Ecke Ranch in the town where I grew up. I read articles on the use of holly in early winter solstice festivals, in homes to brighten the dark days of winter, and the exchange of branches by friends as tokens of goodwill. Holly was thought to ward of evil and protect a home against witchcraft as well as provide refuge for friendly woodland sprites. I read an article on vintage Christmas cards and learned that the first Christmas cards were sent around 1846 in London by Henry Cole who wanted to send holiday greetings to his friends and associates. German born Louis Prang immigrated to America where he perfected color printing techniques and his cards were elevated to the level of artistry. There were columns written telling stories of various traditions from choosing the Christmas tree, to one towns' yearly production of The Messiah, as well as one describing a traditional Polish Christmas Eve celebration. I even read a reader's letter to the editor and found one that seemed hugely intriguing; it thanked the magazine for an article on French gypsy wagons. In the letter the reader says she met a woman in New Zealand who bought a team of horses and a gypsy wagon and every summer leads the gypsy life, exploring her country--With the current interest in "tiny homes" these wagons seem like an interesting option (with or without the horses).
Wouldn't you just love to spend at least the summer in this beautiful wagon? I think I would. Now that I think I have gleaned about as much as I can from these issues, I will donate them to the library where they sell them for a mere 50 cents.
"Time, you old gypsy man,
Will you not stay,
Put up your carvan
Just for one day?"
Ralph Hogdson
A very interesting piece and I will tell you what I read once about saving magazines. When you see an article you might like, cut it out and save the few sheets. That way, you can get rid of the magazine and not hoard and you have your article in a few pages. I remember putting about 40 National Geographic's in the trash and it still bothers me!
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