The Glory Hole by Nancy Malcolm

Remember my little Auntie Sue?  She’s the one who taught me about ‘Sittin Ugly’ and she’s also my role model for aging gracefully with a sense of humor.  Well, Auntie Sue taught me something else…

Once when I was visiting her in her little apartment in Oklahoma City, she asked me to help her clean out a few things.  She sat in her favorite chair by the window and I would hold something up, “Throw?  Keep?  Give away?”  Usually she would start in on a story about whatever I was holding up and we would end up laughing, crying or hugging and not getting much else done.  On this  particular day, as I was quizzing her about things in the closet, she exclaimed, “Oh Honey, just put it over there in that cubby by the dresser…you know, my glory hole.”

“Glory Hole?”, I asked.  Did I hear it right?  “What pray tell, is a Glory Hole?”  She explained that if you had something and for whatever reason, you loved it, but you didn’t really need it or even know where to put it, you could store it in your Glory Hole.  If it has no category or value other than you like it….Glory Hole.   Even sometimes if you know you should give it away and you put it in the give-away pile and you take it out again…..it goes in the Glory Hole.  

I learned, as we went through her belongings, that you ‘just know’ if it is Glory Hole material.  It’s a feeling, an instinct that tells you, “I need this thing. I love it.  And I don’t know why.”  It’s a personal preference.

I’ve always had a “junk drawer” in my kitchen and I’ve always had a closet (or two) that hold “treasures” of a sort, but now I have my own Glory Hole.  Don’t get all judgmental or self-righteous on me….we all have a Glory Hole of one kind or another.  An old jewelery box or shoe box stored safely away in the attic or up high in the closet?  Glory Hole.  I think it just makes sense.

Some day, in the far away future (I hope), my girls will be going through my things and come across my Glory Hole!  What a day that will be!