Wednesday, May 1, 2013

A Walk Down Memory Lane


When I was a kid my mom and my friends mom made us Pippi Longstocking dolls. I adored my Pippi and wanted to be just like her. We must have had a book about her and it is possible that I knew she was from Sweden but I conveniently forgot as I grew up and left her behind in my childhood home. Some years ago, after I met my husband (then boyfriend), we traveled to Sweden and while we were walking around in the old town area of Stockholm (Gamla Stan) I saw a Pippi Longstocking doll in a window and exclaimed, "Oh! You have Pippi Longstocking too?!" Must to my surprise I was then informed (or possibly reminded!) that Pippi was Swedish and it was "us" who also "had Pippi" and not the other way around. Sigh.

So anyway, my parents are moving from the last childhood home I lived in to a new home and new city approximately ninety miles away. I am here in my hometown helping them pack and going through boxes of some of my things that I left at home when I moved out. It has been fun and surprising to uncover some of the items that I "treasured" enough to save. Below is an example of a "book" that I made and further down are photos of my bluebird patch banner, a letter I wrote to my daddy when he was serving in the national guard, and a photo of my softball teammates and me when I was in eighth grade, respectively. It has been both stressful and entertaining to sort through all of these old memories  and whittle everything down to a more managable quantity. Old dance costumes from fifteen plus years of dance recitals and performances, letters to and from friends and family through the many years of living in Texas, California, Arizona, back to Texas, back to California, and then back to Texas again, as well as other well-loved keepsakes, dolls and various hard-to-part-with items. It has been a fun walk down memory lane... and hard work packing up a home filled with approximately fifty years of life and memories.

John Travolta "picture book"

Need I write more?!

Hard-earned bluebird patches.

A sweet letter to my daddy. But I don't remember any of my friends thinking I "cheeted" in everything. :-p

I am in the back row on the far right. :-) Complete with braces.

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