Tobby Hatley: I want mom and dad’s knickknacks to stay right where they are

My octogenarian parents have been busy over the past few years dusting off, sorting, boxing and labeling hundreds of gewgaws, gadgets and goodness knows what else that they have collected during their 66 years of marriage. The plan, as I understand it, is to make sure that their three sons will have easy access to the loot when the time comes.

That time apparently arrived over the recent Thanksgiving holiday as mom handed me an elegant, German-made carving set that has been in the family for more than 60 years. I always admired the knives when we used them during special occasions while growing up and many times mentioned that I would like to eventually have them.

But while thanking mom for the gift I began wondering whether this was just the beginning. My folks are of a generation where nothing was ever wasted, things were never thrown away until they’d seen multiple repairs, and any empty wall space was quickly covered with a knickknack, calendar or other suspect piece of art won at the local fair.

I broke into a sweat as I looked around my boyhood home and wondered whether the knives were just a ploy to get me to take other family treasures: Would mom’s porcelain doll collection, which includes a leather-clad Elvis, try to wiggle its way toward a new home in Spokane? Could the minstrel made of wood blocks that’s been hanging on the living room wall since the late ’60s continue silently playing his lute in my living room? Maybe the Magnavox console stereo that hasn’t worked since 1978 – and is a great piece of furniture, according to dad – would soon be hooked up to my home theater system.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my parents and appreciate how they were able to acquire so many things while working full-time and raising three boys in the small farming community south of Spokane where they still live.

My brothers and I were always well cared for, never missed a meal and had love and support while growing up – something that continues to this day.

But really, what would I do with three cupboards full of multi-colored Tupperware bowls and storage containers? Or 40 years’ worth of Reader’s Digest?

Maybe I should accept my folks’ generosity with more grace and dignity as a way of thanking them for everything they’ve done for me. Guess I could store the magazines and the doll collection in the Tupperware, and the minstrel might be kitschy enough to fit in the office.

And I know there are people around Spokane who like to tinker with old stereo equipment, so the console could be brought back to life.

But I think that these items, and every other family heirloom, would be better off staying in familiar surroundings – gives me a good reason to visit my parents more often and smile at all of the memories.

Tobby Hatley is a communications consultant and former broadcast journalist.