Again, today’s box really isn’t a box: It’s an assortment of stand-alone items that were loosely arranged in and near an wire office tray. In my defense, they all were in the garage. And now they’re not. Progress!

Box 39: Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023

CONTENTS: Check out the cool hat on the right; the younger daughter got that for me on her first trip to Europe. It’s supposedly a shepherd’s hat of some sort, but I think it’s more like a wizard’s hat; perhaps a headwear expert will be able to fill me in. In any event, the hat was put to good use in at least a couple of Celebrate Corvallis videos. The teddy bear box in the center was used by one of the daughters; it contains small toy horses. Another box, which you can’t see in the photo, was decorated with clippings about the boy band NSYNC and contains a small selection of Beanie Babies; this presumably was the younger daughter’s, because the older daughter was more of a Backstreet Boys fan. (And, yes, we saw them all in concert — and the Spice Girls, too.) The little object to the left of the teddy bear box is a paperweight (I guess) in the shape on an old-time phone. The receiver actually lifts off so that you can shout “Sweetheart, get me rewrite!” into it.

DISPOSITION: The hat will return to the top shelf in the closet, where it will be the One Hat to Rule Them All. I’m afraid that the NSYNC box is headed to recycling. Although we no longer believe that the daughters’ Beanie Babies collection will pay for our retirement, we are storing them in bins and will add the newfound Beanies. (We have the Pokémon cards stashed away for our retirement.) The office tray will be donated, as will the teddy bear box. Perhaps the little girl who eventually gets the box will be delighted to discover toy horses inside. Then she will pull out the telephone paperweight and ask her parents: “What is THIS thing?”