“Hey, if you ain’t gonna use it, just give it to us
We’ll give it a home
Well, have they got something shiny for me?
Anybody got a Christmas tree?
Can you part with a toilet seat?
Ah, jump up, ah, jump up, ah, jump up
Come on and give it to me
Rag and bone
We wanna get it, granny, while it’s hot
You think it’s trash, granny, but it’s not
Oh, we’ll be taking whatever you got
Ah, give up, ah, give up, ah, give up
Come on and give it to me
Woo
All of your pretty
Your pretty little rags and bones”
Jack White
This morning I was out for a 4 mile chat/therapy session with Santa Ray out in Rossmore Park, and after I’d dropped him home I saw a skip outside a terraced redbrick house opposite Toll Bar Stores. The skip appeared to be full of old furniture, but what caught my eye was a navy suit and a pair of trousers on their hangers, on the metal fence beside the house. The price tags were still on them , I assume they were never worn, and whoever had filled the skip must have felt that they were too good to bin, and hung them there for anyone to take.
The scene felt a little sad. The things that had been precious to someone, possibly accumulated over a lifetime, dumped in a skip.
When I was back in my office….
“You have an office ?”
Yes.
“For what ?”
I’m never entirely sure myself. I sometimes get asked ‘What do you actually do ?’ and I usually reply with a quote about the great Monaghan mogul, Henry Fortescue, husband of Frances Murray, owner of Rossmore Park, and later became the Earl of Clermont, who was friend of King George IV, King Louis XVI, and Joseph II, Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary King of Hungary, of Bohemia, of Dalmatia, of Croatia, of Slavonia, of Galicia, of Lodomeria, of Italy, of Cumania, of Bulgaria, of Serbia.
“No one is entirely sure what it is that the Earl actually does, but all are agreed that he does it exceedingly well.”
Anyway, I sat in my office and looked around at the bits and bobs that I’ve placed there.
There’s a framed print of a heart that my Soulmate got for me one Christmas, a Little Lamp that was going to make a fortune for Benny, a plaster crown made by Elliott, a brown leather frame that contains a scribble by Jake that I rescued from the bin in his bedroom, which sits over a photo of the actor Noelle Brown who we pretended was dead to get sympathy votes in a competition in Trinity, three fancy tins (empty), of Fortnum & Mason biscuits that our friend Ronan brings from London when he visits for our Not Dead Yet dinners, a papier-mâché pig face mask made by Robyn, which , again, I rescued from her bin, and a battery powered stabbing machine made by Elliott, that , yet again, I rescued from his bin.
Above the next shelf are four Carib Indian little pottery heads that my Soulmate and I got on our honeymoon in Grenada. On the shelf below there’s an old Red or Dead Russian doll shop display, a green alabaster copy of the ‘Salona Girl’, a famous Roman marble head found in Zagreb which reminds me of the trip there with John and Stephen, a red Lego water bottle, a framed photo of Elliott, aged 3, a glass robin, a football trophy which I won on our lawn, a SuperMario mug which reminds me of that night Barry Lyons and I stayed up until dawn playing Super Mario World, taking turns to get to the next level, drinking Carlsberg and listening to Primal Scream’s ‘Screamadelica’ on repeat, and a Camino shell.
Theres a framed map of the night sky above Monaghan on April 5th, 1997, with the E.E.Cummings quote “You are my sun, my moon and all my stars”, given to me by my Soulmate. Below that is a collection of old mobile phones of mine, a Lone Ranger cowboy toy that Stephen got me, remembering the one Santa got me when I was 7, there’s a snowglobe of a girl called Hailey who I used to dedicate my running to, a brass cryptex that Jake gave me one Christmas and I didn’t think you could open , and one day our John opened it with a code he associated with me and we discovered a lovely note from Jake which made me cry, and I placed back in the cryptex and now neither Jake, John or I can remember the code, a Bowling Green State University mug sent to me by Jarett, who I also ran for, next to a Wirecard stress cube, a pencil rack, made by Jake, and yet again rescued from his bin, and two little wooden discs hand carved by Gareth for Eileen and I with lovely, poignant, and heartfelt symbols that are cherished.
“You’ve forgotten what those symbols mean, haven’t you ?”
Yes, but I still cherish them.
There’s a Hughie The Buck poster that always reminds me of Micky. Above that there’s a little BoPro jar, two Hufflepuff and Griffindor tins, a stuffed llama, a Spitting Image Ronald Reagan coffee pot, a Spitting Image Margaret Thatcher tea pot wearing an East Belfast GAA beanie, an incredibly rare CD of Sneaky Pete & The Ostrich featuring a surprisingly upbeat Jinx Lennon and my great friend Adrian Corcoran, an a large metal big toe branded Skechers, and a wooden carving of two parrots facing each other and making a heart shape that we got on our honeymoon in St.Lucia ( same honeymoon, different island ).
There’s a framed Stormtrooper print underneath which there’s a Up!/Deathstar painting by Trevor Woods, the upcycling artist and all round good egg, a V for Vendetta facemask, a little R2D2 mug, a Stormtrooper helmet with voicebox which we used in a few St.Patrick’s Day Parade, a mug with a photo of the Youth Diversion kids wearing the helmets, a little 3D print of St.Macartan, and a 3D print of Druid, one of our Drumlin Giants, made by the irrespressible Kae Verens, and a little 3D orange John Baloney, made by the John Baloney, whom I love dearly, a little yellow wooden duck skittle, a two sided plastic ‘pebble’ that was going to be given away with copies of the book ‘Ulysses & Ezekiel, that I came up with with Ryan, about a talking wombat and a troubled kid, which also featured a yellow and pink chequered Battenburgasaurus called Barbara.
Theres a former Haix boot display stand which now holds books, various jars containing Rossmore Revels chocolates , and Ballybay Mix which is like Bombay Mix….only Monaghanier. There’s a horse’s head and a Styrofoam head wearing a delightful straw boater left behind by Denis.
And that’s just one wall !
I can easily see it all in a skip someday when I’ve shuffled off this mortal coil…well most of it, I can see our Stephen grabbing the Spitting Image ceramics…and it doesn’t upset me at all.
The skip I saw today was filled with the ephemera of the everyday life of someone I don’t know, but for a moment I thought of them and wished them well.
Writing this it’s just occurred to me that I referred to the location of the skip as opposite the Toll Bar Stores which closed over 40 years ago and has been the unemployment office for generations.
The stuff in my office is magic.
It makes me think of you, and I smile.
Isn’t that cool ?
Toodles,
Paul
P.S. This is for lovers of stuff. Turn it up extra loud.
