Those were the days my friend...

My folks are moving. We helped clean out their house a bit. Still a long way to go. I didn't realize I had packed away my childhood and left it in their attic. Seriously. I'd almost venture to say that a little less than half of the boxes were my childhood crap...books, letters, toys, even.

So, today I started going through this box of letters. First, I discovered all of my former relationships were documented through letters...both in friendships and romance. Eeks! Why oh why did I save them?

I haven't even really read any of the letters, but the most exciting find of the day was the very first letter the Jeremy ever wrote to me from Basic training. Yeah, I still can't read his handwriting. But what I could read, I laughed all the more. Ah, the memories. I'm smiling just thinking about it. He was in love with me, and I was not interested. But I remember being thrilled to receive that first letter.

Then I found a letter from Grandma while I was away at camp. It nearly broke me. I didn't realize I still had something with her handwriting on it. I know it's been almost fourteen years since she passed, but still some days I miss her so much. I couldn't read it. It was almost too much just to look at it.

Some other fun finds through my crap: my etcha-sketch animators. Oh man, did I love these. The kids put batteries into them and have been having fun playing with them. I figured out how to work the one animator. I'd have to re-read the manual for the more advanced model. Anyway, I showed Ruth how to use the more basic one, and she picked it up relatively well. But boy did it stretch my memory trying to figure out how to make it work. Yay for good memories!

Then there was the sound studio toy that I had wanted. I was probably too old for such a toy, but I still wanted it and I still had fun with it. I handed that to the kids too. Actually, I gave it to Hannah since Ruth already has a Karaoke machine. Joshua found some D batteries (he is the "battery king" after all) and they've been having a blast with it. I forgot how annoying the dumb sound effects are.

The other stuff I had packed away were my dolls and barbies and books. Lots and lots of books. The kids have been enjoying reading the books I read as a kid. I didn't keep them all, just the ones I thought they'd be interested in. We also divided up the board games. I look forward to playing some of them with my kids. However, my mom insisted I take the National Geographic Global Pursuit game with us because the Jeremy "Would really enjoy it" I protested, "NOOOOOOOOooo! He'll make me play it with hiiiiimmmmmmmmmm! Ahhhhhhhhhh!" And for that matter, we took the 80's edition of Trivial Pursuit.

Also, I found the quilt that belongs to the rope bed I inherited from the afore mentioned Grandma along with some of her knitting yarns. And we haven't even gotten through my parent's basement. Ah to be a packrat...