2,999,999 more out there. Where?

Over the summer I had to clean out our cottage in a hurry and take or throw away a lot of stuff.  I am a very sentimental guy who has a strong memory for the past if you get me.  My Mother, not.  So it was terrible to see these birthday cards and all sorts of cards just tossed out.  It was history for me.  I am not a pack rat, just a believer in history.  Don't confuse the two. 

I have to get to the point now.  What I really wanted to talk about, query, is: where do all these things go?  Mostly I am thinking about games.  Cards of all sorts get burned or are biodegradable.  But games?  They are mostly plastic. What happens to them?

I looked at one of my most favorite games from when I was a kid, Hi Q, and it said on the box cover, "over 3 million sold".  3 Million!  And that was when we bought the game in the early 70s.  Maybe they sold 10 million all told.  I don't know.  But the point is, where did they all go?  I have one.  What about the other 2,999,999 or more?  Games aren't like your grandmothers earrings which get passed down from generation to generation. Its not like your grandmother says to you before she passes on, "here, take this heirloom and cherish it" and she passes you a game of Chinese checkers or Parcheesi.

Did they all go to the land fills? Or are they sitting in 2,999,999 attics or basements?

2,999,999 games of Hi Q sitting buried in land fills across the US and A?  Plastic.  600 years later they are still sitting there?  And how many others?  Milton Bradley, Mattell and Parker Brothers games, not to mention all the Barbies, sitting, just sitting in land fills?  I wouldn't believe it.  But...    I don't know

So I packed away STUFF into boxes and sent it FedEx overseas.  The Hi Q, Rubik's cube, Chinese Checkers, Battleship, Stratego (god, how I loved that game and how many times my friend and I played it when we were ten) Operation, and the funny clincher, Monopoly.

Thus the games will live on with me for another 50 years or thereabouts.  Then what?  Given to some school, or a library, or distributed to poorer peoples homes? Or given to the girl or boy down the street?  IDK

I still love them now and have introduced them to my kids with some success.  But really each generation has its own Heroes, TV shows, music and games.  Games usually have a shelf life.  Only a few like Barbie have been able to withstand and survive multi generations.  Its not like I see kids running to the store to buy Stratego these days.  They last a generation, if that.  Its like that with a lot of things except for the biggest names.  When I think of it now, the best "toy" or keepsake which probably no one has as a keepsake is the pet rock.  What a genius idea it was.  I mean for the future.  You didn't have to worry about it sitting in a landfill.  Just chuck it out on the street or anywhere and it hurts no one.  What a great idea as far as recycling goes. Did anyone keep a pet rock?

Music on the other hand, is going to be sitting around.  OK, no one threw away or should have thrown away their Beatles, Pink Floyd, or Led Zeppelin collections.  But only the real collectors care about saving all the Camper Van

cover to Take the Skinheads bowling EP.  I own one

Beethoven, Vomit Launch or even Partridge Family albums.  Cmon get happy. Its been thirty years or more since any of those bands have done anything and not many people know about them, let alone care about them.  'Cept for me maybe.

Its the same with games.  Besides for Monopoly, not many people really care about Stratego or Battleship these days.  Just me, maybe some other weirdo collectors.

 My life is the long and winding sentimental journey road.

What I ll probably do before I die is ask that I be buried or cremated with all my games, CDs and maybe a smattering of birthday cards and books.  Have them all come with me.  I CAN take it with me.  Why not?  I don't think many other people will care for my belongings.  Then when I am buried, or my ashes are buried, all the atoms will mix together and there will be an atom of Max mixed with Camper Van Beethoven's "take the skinheads bowling" vinyl EP.  Some tree will grow from my ashes, which will throw off acorns, which will get eaten by squirrels which might get shot by a hunter or eaten by an owl who will pass those atoms on to their children and the matrix for Max and Camper van Beethoven and Stratego will be passed along to some plant, animal, and human in the near future.

I pity that  (future) fool.

Nothing's ever lost.  Everything eventually ends up someplace else.  Isn't that nice to know?