What’s In The Attic?

A recent comment by sister-in-law Becky got me thinking: What do Pam and I  have in our garage attic?

Quite a bit.

First, an anecdote. Remember microfiche? When Pam first proposed working from home a couple days a week the question of microfiche came up as many of the records Pam works with are on them. “No Problemo,” says Pam to her boss. “Jer has a microfiche reader in the garage attic.” This statment was greeted with a silence. After all, why would anyone have a microfiche reader in their attic? “Jer used to get his service manuals on microfiche and bought a reader to use them.” So now Pam can, and often does, use microfiche at home.

So what else do we have?

• Old Macintosh computers and printers. At least 3 computers, including a IIFX, the most expensive Macintosh that Apple ever produced. My first Mac with a built-in hard drive, a Mac SE-30, in it’s orginal box. (1986.)
• Christmas decorations.
• Spare propane tank regulator.
• Old books, mostly Macintosh related.
• Lamps, including a banker’s lamp and a floor lamp. Baker’s lamp needs a new shade. (“I’ll get around to it…”)
• Toys. Felicity’s and Toby both have “someday we’ll give them” collections, which include metal trucks, 3-d puzzles, Pound Puppies, logos, posters, and games of various types.
• Doll collections. Pam’s Barbies and some of Felicity’s collection.
• High-schood yearbooks and momentos. Pam and I both have some of this stuff.
• My 35mm slides, negatives, Super-8 film, projector, and other camera and photography gear. Several boxes worth, including several Kodak Carousel trays and a front-silvered mirror. (Not familiar with front-silvered mirors?  Thats what the internet is for…)
• Computer accessories. 3.5 inc h computer disks, various cables, and SCSI hard drives. (Antiques!)
• Motorcycle parts and pieces such as saddlebags and windshields.
• A 5-gallon water tank from an old trailer. (?)
• Fans in the winter, electric heaters in the summer.
• A roll of foam, used at one point under a sleeping bag.
• Guitar case with no guitar in it. (?)
• An IBM Selectric typewriter. Works fine.
• The storage compartment screen from the Subaru.
• An extra kitchen table from myAunt Gina. (Toby used it in his apartment until he moved.)
• Old clothing patterns.
• Kid’s costumes. At least 6 boxes worth.
• An antenna pole. The kind you would put next to a house to put a TV antenna up.
• Two Coleman coolers and a traveling refigerator. Refrigerator plugs into a 12v outlet and keeps food cool. (Pam uses it to keep canned dog food fresh on long trips.)
• Luggage, knap sacks, other travel bags including a couple old backpacks.
• Flooring left over from doing the master bedroom floor. (That was 7 years ago.)
• Old child’s sled, now considered a Christmas ornament.
• An old steel bed frame. No headboard, just the frame.
• Until recently, 3 boxes of fabric and 2 boxes of Blueware.
• Myron and Lorraine (Pam’s parents)  memorabelia.
• A couple of storm windows.
• My collection of ’60s Hot Rod and other car-related magazines.
• Miscellaneous “stuff.” (Quite a bit of it.)

The above list is not complete and certainly does not give a good idea of the volume of stuff we’ve kept. I managed to get a couple  photos to give some scale to this collection.

West end of the garage attic. Bed frame is at bottom left.

East end of attic. End of kitchen table (brown) visible at left.

We have to clean our attic.

Pam has already floated the idea of grabbing a bunch of stuff  and moving it along, either through yard sales, donations, or  trips to the dump. Anyone need a spare propane tank regulator?

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!