I Save Boxes

That is certainly a simple enough title isn't it? Sound pretty boring? Probably, however, this post is actually quite interesting. Since the state of motherhood began I started  saving boxes. One day the kids' dad brought home a big tissue box that was taller than they were. He cut the top off and before we knew it they had decided that that ordinary box was their plane ticket to imaginary lands such as Grandma's house, and Aunt Rosie's house. The car and truck noises were all that it took to make their vehicle real and most fun.
When Christmas arrived, the kids' gifts were in Pop Tart and cereal boxes. They had more fun trying to figure out what was in these wonderful mystery boxes. They just knew that they wouldn't be getting Pop Tarts or cereal for Christmas. Sometimes they did get their special sweetened cereal for a gag gift. It was so much fun!
Then the kids grew up and left home. They got gifts wrapped in Christmas wrapping. It wasn't nearly as much fun. A few years ago my youngest son used my windshield ice scraper and broke it. He said he would replace it but he did not. I didn't let him forget it either. About five years ago there was this five foot long skinny box all wrapped up with a big bow with the other gifts. I said, "Who is that for?" No answer, sure enough it was for me. I was made to open all my gifts except that one. The box was taped with duct tape, masking tape and impossible to open without a tool box. Finally, I had a brand new ice scraper about four years after I quit driving! So much laughter accompanied all that fun in those days.
The Saving Box Fetish started when I decided that if I bought something new and it didn't work that I should have the original box to send it back to Amazon. I saved and saved boxes and accused Fran of throwing away my boxes at times. Sometimes I threw the boxes out on the back porch/workshop/used to be sun porch, just because it was easier to do that than break them down and throw them away. The back porch has a door, but we don't use it. The doorway has a mesh magnetic door which makes it so easy for the dogs to go in and out without a human opening the door to the outside. You just have to be there. It's cool. lolThis habit came back to haunt me this week when Fran brought in a sack of hummingbird feeders that had been put in a box and buried in the piles of boxes that "I might need someday."
One day this week a bird came swooping in the porch and I yelled at Fran that there was a bird in the back porch. The next day he showed me why the bird had taken a swipe at me:
I saved that box because my new laptop came in it and I might have had to return it don't you know.