Spring Cleaning, Part 2

Continuing my brutal take-no-prisoners purge during spring cleaning 2012, which was spurred by the passing of my FIL late last year...

This morning the pantry was my target.  As usual, I found a good many items that were long past their "use by" date.  How annoying is that?  $ down the drain.   And, you know if canned and bottled goods have expired, they've been in the pantry waaaay too long.  I really need to take a good look in there more often.  

As I was cleaning and purging, I came across multiple dusty liquor bottles in the pantry.  We're talking hootch in quantities that any respectable Mad Men era household would keep on hand but quantities unheard of in most of today's suburban homes.  You know the "don't drink and drive" and "just say no" messages from the Reagan years didn't totally fall on deaf ears. 

What's the source of all this booze in my house?  It was my late FIL who came from that Mad Men generation.  He was a regular drinker (his favorite drink was a Manhattan) and up until 2007, would spend gas traveling from Fredericksburg, VA, to Washington, DC, to stock up on his favorite booze.   Why the trip into DC?  He was convinced it was cheaper.  Never mind that pesky cost of gas.  

When my mother-in-law became ill in 2007 and we had to move my in-laws closer to us, we had the task of moving them.  The booze collection was just one of many treasures found amid the layers of paper, junk and worthless collectibles they seemed so fond of surrounding themselves with in their retirement years.  Happily the vast majority of the booze and the useless collectibles ended up with us.  My brothers-in-law had far to travel and, more importantly, knew when to say "no" to bringing things in to clutter up their own homes. Smart guys.

Back to this morning.:  cleaning out the pantry and landing upon the forgotten collection of booze.  As I dusted off the bottles my first thought was we could have a great party with all that if only we had a group of friends who lived close enough to stumble home -- no drinking and driving for this generation, remember.  My second thought was I'd better find a hiding spot for it and put it under lock & key.  With a teenager in the house, I suspect it would only be a matter of time before curiosity won out over "Just Say No".

So now I sit here, taking a break from cleaning and pondering the fate of the booze collection in my pantry.  Why not just pour it down the drain?   Well, there's no "use by" date on liquor and that would be like throwing $ away...wouldn't it?  Throwing $ away!?  Why do I count this stuff as part of our inheritance from my husband's family?  I guess it's the eternal siren call of having an impressive booze collection whether it is in style or not.