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The mad dash
August 30, 2008What to pack and what not to pack?
I talked to numerous students/professors over the last few days looking for advice about how what to pack if I decided to leave town.
Their collective answer: Anything I cared about.
One student was here when Katrina hit three years ago. Expecting just the normal hurricane evacuation - leave, small hurricane/tropical storm hits, town returns to normal in a day or two - he packed one suitcase of clothes. It wasn't until two months later that he was allowed back in town.
The hard choice for me is deciding between actual monetarily valuable things and things that are just sentimentally valuable. "Take whatever can't be replaced," one friend advised, but that's almost everything in my apartment.
I don't have anything that would qualify as a family heirloom, but there is the 1950s orange couch and chair that was my grandmother's, which everyone else in the family thinks is hideous but I love, which is why it's become technically mine. But my orange couch won't fit into my Honda Accord.
My dad told me to pack my brand new TV, but I'd rather pack the old Singer sewing machine cabinet that I use for my TV stand. Sadly, neither item will be making my evacuation trip.
And so, I'm trying to just pack necessities, and yet my car is going to be busting full with stuff. All my clothes and shoes, all my important papers. Pictures, photos, my favorite books. (And yes, technically, the books can be replaced, but I've written in their margins, so they're coming.)
What can I not live without? It's going to be a long couple of hours.
Posted by Lara Richards at 7:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
