Pop, the Pack Rat

There are certain things that Pop likes to hoard and pack away. He's a selective pack rat. They are sugar and cracker packets from restaurants, pens, cross word puzzles and granola bars. I find them on his night stand by his bed, in his pockets, in his closet and stashed in his over night bag that he still keeps filled with his essentials. No one can know for sure why he packs these things away and why he chooses the items that he chooses but I have formulated some opinions.

Sugar and crackers are FREE and you can carry them out of a restaurant pretty easily. Remember he is a Depression era kid who grew up with frugality embedded in his DNA. It doesn't matter if it is something that one needs or not. It is the fact that it is free and accessible.

Pens, well they are essential for carrying on the business of life. One never knows when one of the family members will ask, "Pop, can I borrow one of your pens?" When we do ask that question he pulls one out of his pocket with a flourish and presents it to us with a look of satisfaction. Pop to the rescue. He has materialized a pen in a moment of need.

Cross word puzzles are nostalgic for Pop. I don't pretend to be a psychologist but knowing how much pleasure these puzzles have brought him through the years I would guess that just having them around gives him a feeling of enjoyment. Tearing them out of the newspaper gives him that sense of anticipation for solitary moments of playing word games and using his skills of recall. Now though, the puzzles just collect on his bed stand with not a word on them. A very sad commentary on where he is at at this stage in his life. Actually I think it bothers me more then it does him. After tearing them out of the newspaper he takes them down to his room, sets them on the bed stand with every intention of doing them later. But as soon as he leaves his room he has already forgotten all about them, and the one from the day before, and the day before that.

Now, as for granola bars ... well that is an easy one to figure out, too. I'm sure that he is sure that at some point in time I am going to starve him to death by not having dinner on the table at 5:00 PM. One can never have enough of a food stash on hand for emergencies like that! Granola bars are not only good for emergency rations but also for snacking between meals, after meals, while watching TV, while moseying around the house, while sitting on his bed, and most any time of the day that a little hunger pang may come along.

Pop doesn't eat his granola bars. He picks at them. And after each bite he'll very carefully rolls the remaining bar back into the pack. It goes something like this. I hear crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, .... crinkle, crinkle, crinkle as he opens the pack to take a snippet. Then I hear crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle ..... crinkle, crinkle, crinkle as he wraps the remaining bar back up and puts it in his pocket. A few minutes later I hear crinkle, crinkle, crinkle ... you get the idea.

Granola bar eating is a huge source of irritation for me not only because of what I have to listen to as he goes about the nibbling process but also because they are very crumbly and leave a trail. I find granola crumbs in the pantry all over the floor where he gathers and opens them. I find them on the duvet cover on his bed, on the over stuffed chairs where he sits, on the carpet in front of the chairs where he sits, in the car, in his bathroom, on the kitchen floor, inside his pockets, pretty much all over the house.

Well, I see Pop out the window taking his 15th ... or is it his 20th walk for today? He'll probably be back in soon wanting a cup of tea and maybe a granola bar. I'll take advantage of his absence to go throw the sugar and cracker packets away, gather a few pens before he hoards them all and get a few granola crumbs picked up. But the cross word puzzles I'll leave right where I find them. On his night stand.