When Evan was in kindergarten he made me a necklace. The picture above isn't the necklace that Evan made, although I am sure his looked just like this. This is what it said on the other side.
It says "Jack". I noticed that I have had this necklace for 15 years. In my old house it hung in my bedroom. In this house it is hanging off a lightswitch in an extra bedroom. The thing that is weird about this is A) My son's name is not Jack it is Evan and B) I have kept this all these years. Evan told me that Jacks mom had died and the necklace needed a mom to keep it. Evan was a liar. Evan just didn't bring the right necklace home. The Evan necklace never made it home. Then again, maybe Evan wasn't lying. THAT is why I have kept this all these years. For one it reminds me of Evan, and secondly who knows, maybe Jack needed a mom to keep it.
So I am sentimental but as I look around the house I notice that I may be over the edge with it. Exhibit B
Above is a Eddie Haskel fan club t-shirt that a group of guy friends gave me when I was 16. They told me that I was the only chick that had one. I never understood that. I would assume that normal guys wouldn't want to walk around wearing Eddie Haskel on their chest. They weren't normal though. I still have this shirt. It is smashed in a drawer but I have kept it since I was 16. We won't drag out all the t-shirts that I have kept but lets leave it to say that I have a Mephistophales tee that my brother gave me when I was 13.
Exhibit C:
Daughters t-shirt from high school. She was the class of 2000.
Exhibit D
Sons t-shirt from friggin pre-school
Exhibit E
This may be the oddest and yet it means everthing to me. It is my grandmothers housecoat that I keep in my closet. My grandmother died over 20 years ago. I still want it near me.
What I have noticed through all of this is that what I keep for the most part is textiles. They bring back memories and I feel like they have a life of their own. Now, I can't decide what is worse, my yarn problem or the crap I am accumulating in the name of nostalgia.
4 comments:
I save all kinds of unusual old stuff, too. Must have something to do with creative genius. At least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself until the nice men in white coats come to haul me off to the funny farm. =)
Are you having a sentimental senior moment today? I keep all that stuff too, my problem is, I don't have any of it organized. IS that true creative genius?
No problem with saving sentimental stuff, as long as you have a place to keep it, of course. A friend of mine's husband had t-shirts from his teens, all meaningful, of course, but he had at least a hundred - so my friend (secretly) gave them to her husband's mother, who took the best ones, cut them up, and turned them into four quillows! (quilted blankets that fold up into a pillow) She gave the quillows to her son, his wife, and their two daughters for Christmas, and he was delighted! This was a sentimental memento that could actually be used, instead of being hidden away in a drawer or closet.
If it makes you feel any better I have stuff in my house that's older than me!
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