Stuff it: Millennials nix their parents’ treasures

[hunter]

46. One of my brothers is the official repository for our bulkier family heirlooms.

He's got acreage, metal out-buildings, and cats and dogs who eagerly remove nest-building-chewing rodents.

Once the stuff gets dusty enough and nobody remembers it, he gives it away or sells it.

The next generation in our family will probably be about much of this stuff because they don't have the stories.

Without a story the stuff is just stuff. Give it to someone who can use it. Even with a story it's usually best to give it to someone who appreciates it.

One of my great aunts, who lived past a hundred years, was like that in her last decades.

"You like that? Take it, it's yours."

I have many silly things of hers like the meat grinder she made sausage with. I have yet to make sausage with it. (Maybe it'll have to wait until some unfortunate deer jumps in front of my car or a hunter in my family "gifts" me with some other carcass. In spite of my name, I am not a hunter.)

But the truest treasures I have from my great aunt is her flotsam -- her photographs, writing, and art.