It’s funny how much trash can be collected in a lifetime, isn’t it? Even though I live in a 12-foot wide manufactured housing unit (“mobile homes” to you older readers) I think I can fill an entire column just listing some of it. It’s worth a try.
Here’s the item which brought all of this to mind: a bundle of over 100 bookmarks from various book stores, mainly here on the West Coast. It was a logical item to start collecting because, when I bought and sold used books at Huckleberry Books it was interesting to see where the book had been. I even have a stuffed manila envelope of other strange items — some perhaps valuable — which had once served the same purpose.
I kept two hand-carved wooden signs which advertised that old store: one is 18 inches tall by 4 feet wide and hangs in my carport and the other is 8 inches tall by 60 inches wide. I carved that one from one piece of Philippine mahogany and keep it by my side here in my “office.” Why do I still let them take up space?
Of course, there’s also the white suit with vest and string tie hanging in the closet, reminding me of the nearly three hundred audiences I faced as Mark Twain. I think I’ll hang on to it, though. It’ll make a perfect costume to wear as I’m rolled into the oven.
Next to it, I have two silk robes purchased in “Occupied Japan” that I’m sure I’ll never wear again … nor will I likely have an occasion to!
They’re hanging near the beautiful ski jacket which still looks new and which I wore far too few times when I was working at a bike and ski shop in Olympia back in the middle 1980s. There’s also a set of earmuffs in the shape of teddy bear heads that I’ve never had the courage to wear.
Then there’s the row of playbooks taking up space. Some of them are plays I’ve been in or directed and others are plays I was considering directing. An interesting one consists of two one-act plays, “The Actor’s Nightmare” and “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You”.
The “Actor’s Nightmare” is a common one for just about any actor who has ever dreamed: You’re either onstage, or about to walk onstage, and don’t have the foggiest idea what the play is about, what character you’re playing, or what your lines are. It’s been a long time since I’ve had that dream, but believe me; the sweat is real when you wake up.
The second play takes a humorous view of so many ecclesiastical things that were once taught, but have now been changed.
A good example is that Catholics were once taught it was a sin to eat meat on Friday, which brings up a question from her students, “Now that it’s OK, are those people who did eat meat on Friday when it was banned, still burning in hell?”
Concerning plays, a friend once asked me whether I preferred acting or directing. That’s tough to answer. The acting was easier for me, but directing was usually more satisfying. Hey, maybe that’s a good topic for another column one of these days.
Oh, and before I leave, I’m wondering what your reaction was when you first heard that those campaign baseball caps with the message “Make America Great Again” were all made in China? It’s sorta like the Trump Tower being built with Chinese steel … but now “we” need tariffs in place to save “our” economy … or, possibly, stop his competitors from doing the same thing.
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Bill Moeller is a former entertainer, mayor, bookstore owner, city council member, paratrooper and pilot living in Centralia. He can be reached at bookmaven321@comcast.net.
