- Joined
- Oct 2, 1998
- Messages
- 47,228
Kevin, your comment above brought back a thought about my own father...who passed away last year. He was one that was born and raised during the Depression and spent years in orphanages and foster homes. I bring this up because it sheds a little light on his state of mind, while not about knives (though he liked and used them) was about vintage fishing tackle.
(Or anything of use, for that matter. He couldn't really abide the idea of just "collecting" and not "using".)
Before he passed I had told him that I wanted a tackle box he had filled with lures and tackle we had used when fishing together back in the late 50's through 60's. However, concerned that I wasn't going to use them (rather than keep them for sentimental purposes) he donated them to a "boy's home" in the general area of the state where he lived. The disadvantaged kids who got the lures and tackle would write him and tell him how much they were enjoying using the equipment a couple times yearly.
Despite the sentimental value that the tackle represented for me (since I would never have sold any of it), and once I got past my own selfish feelings about it and made peace with what he did, I realized that he made the right choice. That tackle went on to help enrich the lives of others and in the end that was a far nobler use than would have been served by my merely serving as their custodian for sentimental reasons.
Funny how a post about one thing brings up thoughts about another.
