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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

It's like re-connecting with old friends

I went to help my brother out with some things this afternoon and while I was at my mom's house decided to load up my car with some boxes she has been storing for me.

This evening has been somewhat magical. These boxes she stored for me are filled with my childhood toys and books. There is even some of my art work, poetry and stories from when I was a kid. The books have been my favorite thing to peruse.

When I was kid, life in my household was slightly dramatic. At times, more than slightly. Other times, a little bit less. But there always seemed to be some catastrophe or another we had to deal with. I fell in love with reading as a way to escape from my family and join another one (even if it was only for a couple of hours).

Pawing through the books brought back so many memories. So many good memories. The anticipated Scholastic book fairs, browsing through bins at Costco while my parents grocery shopped (where I obtained almost the entire Baby-Sitters Club series -- some were sold off when I was 11, but I kept my favorites), and (the one that makes me laugh a bit) when my parents signed me up for the Especially for Girls mail order book club. Every month for a year, a new book about teenagers was sent to me. At 10 or 11, this was super exciting as I believed life was really going to start for me at the magical age of 13.

The selections this book club sent to me included What Every Girl Should Know About Boys! and Teen Girl Talk as well as countless romances staring the dream boy (in fact, one is titled Dream Boy). I re-read what Every Girl Should Know tonight in about half an hour. The advice may explain some of the decisions I have made in relationships. It's pretty solid advice, but I think I warped it to fit my preconceived notions of having the fairytale romance.

I'm not going to lie, I am pretty stoked to reacquaint myself with some of my favorite characters, get some more style tips from NYC sophisticate Stacy McGill and artsy Claudia Kishi, travel the rough seas with Charlotte Doyle and fully understand the grown-up humour that I missed in the Ramona Quimby novels.

I haven't gone through all of the boxes yet, but I do believe I saved a few issues of my old YM and Seventeen magazines too.

I can't even explain what I am feeling this evening. Just really super content, remembering myself as a young teen. If you're all lucky, maybe one day I'll post one of the poems or short stories I wrote.

3 comments:

psychsarah said...

It's so neat to look through stuff from childhood. I once found a bunch of notes that my best friend and I wrote to each other in junior high. Since we're stil best friends, I want to try and do something with them to share them with her, because they brought me such a sense of joy to recall our younger selves.

I kept all my Babysitter's Club books. I should dig them out-good times!! Did you happen to have the Tina Yothers book about girls growing up? There's another classic for ya.

Kristine said...

I am so envious. Most of my pre-teen stuff hit the curb when I moved from my mom's to my dad's. She stored some of it in an improperly insulated crawlspace, so all my own poetry turned into moldy mush :(

However I still have all my angsty high school journals - what a laugh! :)

Dolly Iris said...

I wish I still had a lot of these kind of things but I dont anymore. Creepy closet gremlins must have eaten them.

I loved "are you there god, its me margaret"