Webster's New World Dictionary says a pack rat is, “... any of a genus (Neotoma) of N. American rats that often carry off and hide small articles in their nests.” This dry definition omits that pack rats appear to be particularly attracted to small, bright, shiny objects and that myth has it that they are fine businessmen who always leave a replacement of equal value when they take something. Naturalists, however, are quick to point out the fallacy in that myth. (Naturalists are spoilsports. Myths are always fun and interesting while facts are boring. Naturalists take a perfectly good myth and ruin it by explaining it with facts.) The truth is nothing more than that the front paws of the pack rat are too small to carry more than one item. So, as he is wandering around carrying a trophy, he might see something else that is more attractive. Hmm, what to do? He drops the first item and takes the second, more valuable trinket.
I also read a story about how pack rats have actually aided scientists. It appears that owls in the western U.S. have been eating a small animal called a vole for a million years or so. Pack rats have been collecting the excretia and saving it. Scientists in Berkeley have said, “In one Colorado cave, a pack rat collection of teeth and bones has yielded a layered slice of vole history between 600,000 and a million years ago, providing an unprecedented picture of how a species changes and evolves, and how its evolution is affected by climate change.”
If you're like me you have to wonder about that fact. Here's a bone and a tooth that passed through the digestive tract of an owl a million years ago. This little guy in glasses and a lab smock gets excited about them, studies them, and comes up with a passel of facts. Whew, he just has to get a life!
All that aside, scientists have validated the belief I've held since childhood that I should not throw away valuable things.
This of course brings up the discussion of what is valuable. I spent many years in the electronics industry so each time I tore apart a radio or stereo I'd save every transformer, coil, servo, knob, screw, bolt, washer, nut, chassis ... just about everything because, “I might need it someday.” That made them valuable to me.
I also spent years in the telephone business so I have boxes of old telephones in my garage. A few of them have touch-tone pads, but most have dials. Now, when am I going to need a telephone with a dial? Doesn't matter, they're valuable.
Then I got involved with computers ... yep I have boxes of hard drives, cables, power supplies, CD-ROM drives, and even mother boards. Realistically, I know that there is no market for 100MB hard drives, 2x CD-ROM drives, or 75MHz mother boards. But ... someday I may need to replace something in an old computer. Uh, no, I'm not in the computer repair business. But, who knows, maybe I'll get into it someday. That possibility makes these components not just valuable, but invaluable.
Those thirty-seven dial telephones may be needed someday. They are something you just can't buy anymore. I am one of the only sources for them if I should ever decide to go into business. And those 100MB hard drives - something else you can't buy. What if somebody comes up six years from now and asks for one. Can I really afford to throw them away? How, then, can I afford to throw away those thousands of cent's worth of antiques? I can't. So ... unless you can convince me these will never be worth anything, I'm holding on to them.
Over the years a number of people have made veiled hints to me about my habit of not throwing things away. Early on my mother said any number of times, “Get this room cleaned. There's junk all over the place.” Later in life I had a roommate who frequently said, “You have way too much junk all over the place.” Still later my wife often made the comment, “You've got too much junk.” Finally, I had several bosses who opined, “Maxwell, you have got to get rid of some of this stuff in your office.”
Pack rats pick up something and leave something in its place because they can carry only one thing at a time. This is NOT the case with me. I can carry many, many things at one time. I suppose the concept of opposable thumbs has something to do with that.
