When I decided to revisit my 52-Week Decluttering Challenge this year, I knew it was just a matter of time before I’d find something that would inspire me to reprise the Clutter Tales series. It took a few weeks into the year, but then I discovered my old blue suede bowling shoes. They brought back a lot of memories, but it was time to let them go.

About Clutter Tales

Clutter Tales is a series where we tell the stories of our lives through our clutter. During my decluttering journey, I found a lot of things that took me back to a different place and time. Instead of casually discarding them, I decided to honour them by telling their story. I’ve written Clutter Tales about a high school shorthand textbook, an old airline ticket, a travel diary from my trip to France at age 18, notes from a visit to a fortune teller, and more!

Along with my own reflections, this series has featured posts by some of my favourite bloggers. If you’d like to write a guest post for Clutter Tales, please get in touch. I’d love to give you the opportunity to properly thank your clutter by sharing its story too!

Now, on to today’s clutter tale…

Let’s keep in touch! Join my mailing list and I’ll email you when I add a new post.

Clutter Tale – Don’t step on my blue suede bowling shoes!

What do you think of when you hear “blue suede shoes”? I suspect it might be this…

Well, it’s one for the money

Two for the show

Three to get ready

Now go, cat, go

But don’t you

Step on my blue suede shoes

You can do anything

But stay off of my blue suede shoes

Carl Perkins, “Blue Suede Shoes

The song is great! But for me, blue suede always brings back memories of bowling, and these little babies I uncovered when decluttering…

When you show up at a bowling alley with your own shoes, people get the idea that you’re actually good at bowling. Well, appearances are deceiving. Those stylish blue suede bowling shoes did nothing to improve my game. Let me take you back…

The office bowling league

In the 1980s, I worked in the credit and collections department at Encyclopaedia Britannica in Cambridge, Ontario. Bowling must have been a thing back then because someone decided we should join a bowling league. Our office wasn’t that big, but we had enough interest to put together several teams. I was in my early 20s and single, so a Wednesday evening outing sounded like a good idea to me.

Every Wednesday evening for several years, we made our way to Dickson Bowl in downtown Galt. Over the course of the years, you would think I’d develop some sort of skill. Nope! My average never improved much, and I was throwing just as many gutter balls at the end of the experience as I did on the first night. So much for the lucky shoes!

Someone must have thought bowling was my thing because I also found this while decluttering…

I didn’t develop any skill but, if I’m honest, I was really there for the socializing and the beer. Oh, and I recall the fries and gravy at the bowling alley were pretty good too.    

Times change but memories remain

Fast forward 40 years. Dickson Bowl is gone—demolished after a fire raged through the long-abandoned building. Downtown Galt is no longer a place I’d feel safe waiting for a bus at 11:00 at night. And Encyclopaedia Britannica closed its Cambridge office years ago. Times change, and sadly I’ve lost touch with almost all of the wonderful ladies that I shared so many laughs with over those years of bowling. It would be fun to have a reunion with them.

Reliving these memories reminded me of how social media has made it so much easier to stay connected with former school friends and co-workers. That’s the positive side of social media that we need to maintain.

In the end, I thanked the blue suede bowling shoes for the memories and posted them on our local Buy Nothing group. They have now gone to a new home. But the memories remain.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of Clutter Tales. Please get in touch if you’d like to write a guest post for Clutter Tales. I’d love to give you the opportunity to properly thank your clutter by sharing its story too!

What workplace social activities have you participated in? Tell me your stories below.