packrat

I am a packrat. I was trained by my mother, who was trained by her mother who lived through the depression and that's what I blame my packraticism on. It could be a disease that sweeps through the female side of my family, or it could be a conditioned response. I use or wear things, in general, until they don't work anymore or are so tattered or beat up that there can be no possible use for it. I wore this particular pair of shoes until there were holes in the backs of them and then I still kept wearing them until my friends made me throw them away. The shoes in the box are one of the best pairs I've ever owned and I wore them a lot. I wore this pair canoeing and camping in the Boundary Waters in Norhtern Minnesota (which mean they were treated to the elements) and then wore them gardening (a summer job) and then wore them for everyday use as well. They got pretty dirty. I didn't think they were that bad until my friends pointed it out. They still protected my feet somewhat, but if it rained my feet would deffinitely get wet. They hadn't completely fallen apart, so they were still good in my eyes. I tend to develop a fixation to my belongings and so had something close to a funeral for my shoes when I finally decided to throw them away. I put them in a casket (the nice shoe box seen in the picture), made sure there was memorabilia(the photo you see), and then threw away the shoes. I kept the box.