The "Shredding A Lifetime" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  Just had my taxes finished for another year and decided it was time to go through all my old manilla folders and get rid of a few years of tax records.  I opened my bottom file cabinet drawer and examined file after file after file of tax records with the oldest being 1972; five years after Carol and I had gotten married.  Studied our finances from that year and wondered how Carol and I managed to survive those years, especially with a child.  

File after file of tax folders

Then I found a few tax records from my mother and father from the early 1960s which I had completed for them when they struggled to do it themselves.  I recently asked my tax consultant how many years of tax records I legally need to keep and he told me three was the minimum.  Well, I decided it was time to clean out the filing cabinet and drop the number of folders from umpteen to just half a dozen.  

Years worth of tax information

I did save my tax file from 1972 as well as my parents oldest tax file, but the remainder of the files I shredded.  You have any idea how long it took me to shred years and years of tax files?  Started about noon and by the time I was finished it was dark.  I really put my shredder to the test, filling 7 white plastic trash bags with the results of my shreading.  But, I must admit that the chore did have some fun moments as I saw how much I made in the early years of my teaching career and how much I made to coach rifle as well as be the advisor to the high school yearbook and complete the yearly printing needs of the high school where I taught.  I found records that showed the price and settlement dates of both our first home on Janet Ave. in Lancaster to our second home on Harrington Drive, about two miles from Janet Avenue.  The mortgage for our first home, a three story home in Grandview Heights, was $36,400!  Found an article telling the story of Nat Netscher, a graduate of Manheim Township High School where I also graduated from, who wrote a book about the district's different schools that existed from the late 1840s until 1947. He later wrote another book titled "From The Beginning" for which I took photographs as well as did the layout for the book. Another interesting find was the Marriage Certificate and small Holy Matrimony booklet from the wedding of my mother and father on March 27, 1943 at St. Paul's Methodist Church.  My dad was in the U.S. Army at the time and wore his dress uniform at the wedding.  So...what do you do with all this stuff?  Throw it out?  I remember back a dozen or so many years ago when I did the same thing of trying to get rid of the junk in my cabinets and drawers.  What did I do?  Well, I'm looking at the same stuff once again...so that should give you an idea as to what I did with the stuff.  This time I actually found a few other items that I didn't remember from my clean-up years ago.  

Old Bible from 1816

I found a New Testament Bible that was printed in Lancaster by J. Bailey and W. Dickerson that had a date of 1816 hand written on the inside cover showing when the person who owned the Bible must have purchased it.  The Bible's print date was M, D C C, X C I I I.  How good are you at determining what the print date might have been?  Then there was a couple of old newspapers; one carried the date of November 29, 1929 titled the Strathmoor Press while the other had a date of April 13, 1917 and titled The Free Press which was printed in Detroit.  

My postcard from church camp to my Mom and Dad in 1957.

Even found an old 2 Cent postcard I sent from Church Camp near Ephrata, PA to my parents at 929 N. Queen Street in Lancaster, Penna.  I sat and thought...what should I do with this stuff?  Came to the conclusion that there is no way I can get rid of any of this stuff.  Is it worth anything?  Probably not much, but it is HISTORY!  HISTORY that belongs to me.  I can't destroy it!  So, I put the stuff back in the same plastic cover where I found it and put it all back in the same drawer where I found it.  At least I did get rid of the many years of tax information that I have accumulated during our married life.  I'm glad that I opened enough space in my filling cabinet to hold the stuff I will accumulate in the next part of my lifetime.  It's only half a drawer, so I must be careful that I don't overdo my collecting or I will be in trouble once again.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.