I found an old box of 1960’s and 70’s hippie papers. There was a large box of Heavy Metal Magazines in there too! They belonged to my friend Van. I don’t know if Van knew he was my friend.
He was an old guy in one of the buildings I managed. He had cancer on and off. He was frail but he was a machinist for like 40-50 years. He was brilliant.
His basement was like a laboratory on the wrong side of the tracks. Piles of tools everywhere. Petri dishes. Flasks. Dust. Rat Poo…and weird rubber molds that felt vaguely provocative. I found a plastic box with Psilocybin mushroom spore samples.
I only knew him for about 8 months before he died. He knew the cancer was back. He was getting ready to go to Thailand for one last time. He loved that place. The air. The, well…he really liked Thai PopGirls and such and had alot of their tapes. I don’t know if he liked the girls in Thailand or if he just liked the music but for whatever reason he wanted to die there it was a real disappointment to me that he didn’t make it.
He got sick right before he left and ended up going to Texas to die with his family rather than dying in Thailand where his heart was.
I was not the first but I was the second person to enter his house after he died. His family took his box of important papers but his entire life was left behind for me to remove. I called a junk removal company to take it all but I went back three different times to sit with his belongings. Van had a Rubik’s Cube and Old Computers and 70s magazines and so many old cords and electronics. He had the huge laboratory too.
My mentor thinks that I should do some sort of release ceremony for him so I can let go. I have yet to do that.
1 comment:
I'll bet there's a lot of really neat stuff if a person were to find the time to really dig around. It's sad it doesn't sound like his family cared enough to really dig through and see what he treasured before putting it upon someone else to dispose of...
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