The Box At The Bottom Of The Closet

shhhh. . . quiet. . . my wife can't hear us talking about this.  See, we were discussing how full our bedroom closet is.  I might have said that none of the junk in the closet was mine, because I don't have a need to keep everything.   (EVERYTHING!)

So, when I came home from work yesterday,  there was a large  box sitting on the bed.  My beloved informed me it was MY  box.  Strange, I don't seem to remember owning a box.

"So what do you think was inside your box?" My wife asked.
I dunno.  Books?
"Well, you do have a box f duplicate Stephen King books.   But this box is full of Stephen King books on tape."
"CDs?"
"TAPES.  So you want me to throw them away,  or ebay them?"

I  didn't think much of it until I started going through the box.  Strange how things can cause of to  be sentimental, right?  I LOVE these tapes!  I've listened to them over and over and over!



So, here is what was in the box:

  • 2 books on CD.  (HA!)  
  • The Drawing of the Three, read by Stephen King.  My favorite of the Dark Tower covers is this one.  I almost bought this set on ebay recently, but didn't because I reasoned it would just end up at the bottom of a box somewhere.  
  • Secret Window, Secret Garden, from Four Past Midnight.  I bought this in High School, then found myself incredibly "sick" the next day -- requiring I miss school and listen to my book while I played video games.   It was a tough life.  I didn't like the ending at all.  I was intrigued by the idea of two writers writing exactly the same book. But it seemed to easy for him to just be having a mental breakup.  Besides, wasn't that the Dark Half?  Also,  I couldn't figure out where the Window and Garden were?!  So there was no secret garden, no real duplicate book -- just a crazy writer.  But, it was a good day off school.
  • The three volume edition of Needful Things on tape.  I got this for my 18th birthday.  (I think 18.)  Each time someone would give me birthday money, I'd go  to the store and buy the next volume. I absolutely fell in love with that book!  Loved King's reading, loved the story and even loved the boxes they came in.  I lined the boxes up neatly on my bookshelf, thinking how cool they looked.
  • Dolores Claiborne.  Once again, this is a great book!  And, once  I've read many times. In particular, I remember listening to it on a rainy day at my Grandma's house when I was in college.  I was alone in the house, and there was serious storming going on.  I took the tape recorder from room to room with me to keep me company.  (That house was scary in thunder storms.  So, naturally -- the thing to do was listen to a Stephen King book.  So wise.)
  • The Shining.  I listened to this a few years ago, right before tapes went bye-bye.  
  • Some books I never finished.  From A Buick 8, which I still can't get through.  And Dreamcatcher, which my wife and I listened to together for a long time -- until it jumped characters and became about a Men In Black military general who's insane.  
So what will I do with the box of tapes?  I actually don't know.  Probably haul them down to the shed.  But then my wife will find them and tell me I can't say ALL the stuff down there is hers.  But it is.  Because the Christmas stuff counts at hers.

2 comments:

  1. Holy crud, don't you EVER through that collection away. EVER!

    ChrisC

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  2. The alien's poisoning the well! Gasp!

    I am doing this right now as well. My wife wants me to get rid of all her stuff in the storage unit so we can get a smaller one. The stuff that is mine is mostly books and artwork I did, it's hard to say goodbye to those things.
    A big purge is coming.
    -mike
    I want those DT2 tapes though. Might pick them up one day.

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