This story was previously published previously on http://www.lunaticlounge.com, but in honor of my beloved mother, I decided to post this again…since, you know, it was Mother’s Day a couple days ago and all…:)

Sadly, my mother died in 2007 of cancer, followed by my dad in 2009, also from cancer.

I spent 5 long months commuting between my home in Ohio to Mom and Dad’s house in West Virginia cleaning out closets, etc., which is a 3-hour drive one way, so it was rather exhausting. And I had not one, but two Estate Sales because Mom had a lot of junk, some valuable, some not. But she definitely practiced a large volume of retail therapy, shall we say..:) ?

Anywho, shortly after we lost Dad, my husband, Charlie, my two boys and I went down in the spring of 2010 for the final gutting/cleaning of the ol’ homestead that had been wall-to-wall knick knacks/furniture/dishes galore and 4 closets full of clothes and 3 or 4 dozen shoe boxes full of pictures.

Not 10 minutes after we got to the house, I heard Charlie howling with laughter from the kitchen.

“Oh, my God, you’ve gotta see this,” Charlie bellowed as I strolled out of my parents’ bedroom into the hallway.

I sail into the kitchen to find these little spongy things spilling out of a rather tiny drawer:

Yes…they are, in fact, Styrofoam meat trays. Yes, the packaging for beef/chicken, etc., used by your local grocer. Spongy trays that most people just toss into the rubbish.

After he discovered these used meat containers, it was like watching a clown pull scarves out of his sleeve because they just kept pouring out of the drawer.  Later, Max counted them for shits and giggles. There were 29 meat trays in various sizes… but they were all white.

Why in heaven’s name did Mom keep them? To what end? Did she use them to make hats? Did they make good insulation for the drawers? Heaven forbid, please tell me, she DIDN’T REUSE THEM!? No, I’m sure that wasn’t the case. Mom’s house was always relatively clean.

Wait, no, knowing Mom, she collected them like UPC codes!! She was supposed to ship them to Logan Packing Company along with some rebate form for cash or mega coupons for ground round…and she forgot…

Because the goats told her to? No, goats are herbivores…and Mom never associated with goats much, that I recall.

Or was she just a plain ‘ol hoarder?

Sorry. I’m just the wolf’s assistant (or something like that), hired to haul away unwanted, often useless crap. And I don’t think the ghosts did it. They’ve got too much to do in the creepy cellar with the dirt floor in the basement (yes, my parents’ house totally had a creepy cellar with one dusty window)…

Alas, we may never know the scandalous mystery of the meat packaging stash as it were…so.

I don’t know what else to say…except…

LIFE’S TOO SHORT, and then you die with gum in your hair and raw meat/ pseudo china in your drawers. Okay, so Mom didn’t have any gum in her hair the day she passed, but you get the idea…:)

Luv you, Mom…especially since right about then, I really needed a good laugh knowing that particular day would be the last time I’d ever walk through the hallowed halls of what had been my childhood home.  And laughing about the freaky items we found in the kitchen and elsewhere made that day a little bit more bearable! :)

HIPPIE Love and peace out…

~KS/TB

© Kennedy Smith/Tenacious Bitch 2014