Gangrey.com

Other People's Stuff

found, in three parts

Check out Inara Verzemnieks: Perhaps the clearest view of who we are as a people can be found through the double doors of a warehouse at the edge of North Interstate Avenue. Inside, the air smells of dust and time, the exhalations of hundreds of old possessions stacked on shelves and propped against the walls — sofas and mattresses, clocks and frying pans, dining room tables and easy chairs, electric skillets and mismatched mugs.

Every day, new things arrive at the warehouse, carried by a diesel truck that winds its way through the city and its surrounding suburbs to the driver’s speed-metal soundtrack, down streets named Muledeer Drive and Blackberry Lane, collecting the overflow of our lives, the contents of those New Homes From the High $350’s. ...

The dresser that no longer fits in the new bedroom, the armchair that has been replaced, the dishes that belonged to a recently departed grandmother, the old ironing board from college that made the trip from Denver to Chicago sticking out of the backseat of your car.

At the same time, things are leaving the warehouse everyday, too, packed into station wagons, pickups and vans that peel paint like skin bound for new-old homes on streets named nothing fancy, houses that are remarkable in their complete absence of possessions, empty spaces where objects take on even greater size and weight because of the holes they fill.

Comments

Re: Other People's Stuff

Some people are just magnetic, and when they talk people want to listen. Doesn't matter what it's about. We can't look away.

So anyway, this is one of those quiet stories. Not a whole lot of action. More of an essay than a narrative. But I blazed through all three parts in just a few minutes. Something about that voice just kept me reading, like the friend on the barstool who can talk about anything and keep the crowd entertained.

Some of this is talent but some is skill, too, and skill can be developed.

If you tune your voice just right, if you become a good enough traveling companion, you can lead a reader anywhere.

Inara, if you're out there, would you like to talk about how you do it?

Re: Other People's Stuff

I loved it, loved it, loved it.

I loved the small story inside the bigger story.

I loved that the reporter led me along without being a-know-it-all tour guide. Or a pedantic sociology major.

I loved that it made me ponder.

Re: Other People's Stuff

I actually think that I will be a better writer for having read this.

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