Such stuff as dreams are made on

With apologies to Shakespeare.

I received this link from a high school classmate today about a treasure trove of baseball cards found in the attic of a recently deceased 97-year-old. (Thanks, Terry!)

I have fantasies about some friend or colleague telling me a loved one wants to just get rid of a bunch of old baseball cards or books to anyone who will give them a good home.

In fact, it reminded me of an incident a few years back when I was in a situation like that when some  family members on my wife’s side asked me to come to Hoboken to look over a collection from one of their relatives who passed away, sadly too young. When I got there I found an entire room full of albums and bags of probably tens of thousands of various cards from all sports from the 1960s through the 1990s. But rather than wanting to get rid of them, they wanted to see if they were worth anything. After several hours of going through the massive amount of memorabilia, they didn’t offer me even a single card as thanks for my time and trouble. Oh well.

But that all reminds of an item I was working on a couple of weeks ago but didn’t post. So here it is.

* * *

 So I’m in a quandary.

We’re cleaning up the house — what else is there to do — and I’m coming across baseball books magazines that are more than 50 years old. Among them are various annuals by Jack Zanger, et al, and titles like Sport World

I still remember going to the candy or bookstores with my meager allowance and memorizing the contents. The Zanger books were especially fun with their mini-profiles and pencil sketches. Oh, for those carefree days right about now.

And, of course, the magazines had those great ads…

What a bargain!

On the one hand, these findings are really cool, a nostalgic throwback to my youth.

On the other hand…

A sad realization of the way of all flesh, made more acute by the current situation.

So the quandary I have: should I continue to hold on to these things and have them crumble in my hands as I try to read them, and leave them to my family to dispose of when the time comes, or give up the ghost and toss them now?