One of the double edged gift swords of this place is that it has never been moved out of; generation after generation has left their traces, some faint and some not.   The positive is that truly accurate impressions can be gathered, as opposed to the prettified and censored concepts of the past that are more common.  But it also means there is a lot of stuff and some is junk; that the last two generations have refused to tender their oblations to the god of consumerism means there is less than there might be.  But there is a lot.

In any event, clearing space in the barn for the recently reacquired gigs and sleighs means an opportunity for reorganization, re-evalution and reflection.  One truck load has already gone to the dump, another is organized for it.  But what is the value of can of pre-war (WWII) Lincoln car wax?  It evokes a car only seen in a few pictures, a different world of manufacturing (everything in the depths of the barn is either UK or American manufacture, even car wax), a different aesthetic.  But is its value as an historical artifact transient? Does it have meaning to me only because my father could tell me about the car, because I recognize fondly the remnants of a bygone era (warts and all)?  Would someone else have even looked/ Should they have even looked?  Would it have meaning tomorrow? 

Difficult questions, and the car wax was the least; there were and are lots more questions.  Benign neglect has a value when it runs for generations; but at some point it has to stop…and apparently it is starting to apply the brake.