Selling something you have known for years and cherish with all your manly heart is sometimes a necessary step in moving on in life, I think. It’s tragic, but at the same time exciting: you can make way for new things, for progress to happen, and that can only be a good thing. I find chucking old things out particularly difficult, so when it came time to put my beloved Matterhorn bicycle for sale, I was almost in tears.
Well, not quite, but I was a bit emotional…The Matterhorn had seen me through some troublesome times and was connected to lots of good times. Like in that film Stand By Me, you know? Except minus the train track and the dead body, of course, my youth was never that exciting. It was a bit daft to be emotional – I was an adult with a car now – but still, the pink and green steed knew me better than anyone: in many ways it was like I was selling off a friend. So when the guy called and asked if he could come and see it, I begrudgingly said “Ok Steve, Ok.”
Steve was, however, not so bothered about the history. As soon as I started to reel off the many times that me and the Matterhorn had hung out, he seemed to switch off…as though he was only interested in its mechanical properties. “I’m not bothered,” he said, “I’m only gonna rip it to pieces and sell the parts, anyway.” Suffice to say those were the last words Steve muttered. Not that I attacked him, of course, but that I escorted him off my premises before things got ugly and I kicked off. A word of advice: if you sell something important to you, make sure it goes to a good home or you’ll regret it forever.