What's Worth Saving?

The 20th century is history, but a retrospective look suggests that there are some things worth keeping from this century which will soon fade from memory. Jeremiah, too. reminds us that eternal values are always worth saving.

Our freshly minted millennium is sparkling in the sun of a new day, but all across the country people are down in their basements saving, storing, salvaging and squirreling away the remnants of the past. In every corner of our country the pack rats are packing away, sticking stuff into cramped closets and greasy garages and the strange little mausoleums to materialism that seem to be popping up all over the place -- you know, those rental storage units that go by the names "Self-Storage" or "U-Store" or "Storall" or "Storage USA."

Maybe you've secured one yourself. Or two ... to handle the overflow from number one.

Let's face it: We're savers. With white knuckles we grip our possessions, pulsing with a passion to preserve the goodies of days gone by. And now the glitter of gold has been added to our possession obsession by TV shows like Antiques Roadshow, a top-rated weekly program on public television that is determined to deliver a "feast of entertainment" as it goes on a quest to...