This is a story of boxes lost and found. Or rather found, because I really didn’t know they were lost!
When we sold our house in Rockwall after our move to Austin in 2015, I found some things we’d forgotten up in our attic when we were checking over the house before closing. They were boxes of things. My mother graciously let me leave them in her attic.
This summer, my nephews were all leaving for college in the fall so Mom and Dad had them come over and clear out their attic entirely. And there were my collection of boxes, which were then deposited at my house.
I’ve been staring at them ever since. Until last week when I finally decided I needed to dive in and see what was to keep and what to throw away.
The first box I opened contained things mostly from my elementary school years! That is quite a long time ago now, folks! It was such fun to sort through things I haven’t looked at in decades. I pulled out some of the photos of me in elementary school because I think my granddaughters will enjoy them. I also pulled out my cheerleading outfit from elementary school, as well as my Bluebird uniform!
They’ll enjoy other things I found in there, too, but those will be for me to bring out and show them—like my elementary school report cards, my “Michigan” pillow I sewed in third grade, my fourth or fifth grade research paper (handwritten in cursive!) about the Battle of Gettysburg, and my ribbon for honorable mention in the ponytail contest for my age group (I was 3!) from the Michigan State Fair!
One of the most wonderful things I found was an envelope full of thank you notes from my third grade classmates to my dad! Apparently, my teacher that year had parents come talk to us about their jobs. The notes are both sweet and hilarious!
I found an autograph book, too. Do you remember those? Mine was received Christmas of 1976. I would have been almost ten. Some pencil entries had faded to almost unreadable, but the entries are funny and sweet. Except for two that were quite poignant. Both my best friend (and next door neighbor) and my sister (two years younger than me) wrote that they hoped we would stop fighting and be better friends. Wow. That will humble you, even all these years later!
I still have several boxes to get through. I wonder what treasures await me there?
Have you ever found a box of things from your distant past? What was the most unique or emotional thing you re-discovered?
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Like your mom, my mom also kept boxes of things from my elementary years. It wasn’t until she was selling her house (the one I grew up in) that those boxes came to me. They’ve been in my basement for far too long and one of my projects will be to go through them more in depth this year and toss what needs tossing. I glanced through one box rather quickly and found birthday cards from my first birthday. There were also a few school projects that wound up in our local fair. It’s fun going through the boxes. I wind up taking pictures of things I’d like to remember, but don’t want to store.
I love that we can take pictures of things instead of keeping the things! I kept these few because I think my granddaughters will enjoy seeing them.
Oh wow, I had an autograph book just like that (but green) and had all my classmates sign it at the end of my 3rd grade year. I’d forgotten all about it! Thanks for the fun trip down Memory Lane!
I had, too, until I came across mine! I was in third grade, too! So fun to remember those long-ago things. And to see mementos of a simpler life.
Pony tail contest? Guess you’ve always had beautiful head of hair, huh? 🙂
Yes. 😂 My mom has a picture of me that day somewhere and my pony tail was crazy long! The funny thing is that my daughter (who now has a head of hair much like mine) didn’t have hair even down to her shoulders before she was about five. And not because I cut it. I didn’t!
I was a Bluebird too! And the state reports must have been an elementary school “thing” long before Common Core. My state was Arizona. Thank you for sharing your memories!
I love that! I feel like many women my age might have been Brownies, but fewer were in Bluebirds! Yes, it was interesting to see the things that were marked on the report cards–like reading grade level and math grade level. (hint: my reading level was always beyond my grade level while math? Well, not so much.)
I remember having an autograph book for Walt Disney World in Orlando. It was fun getting signatures from the characters we saw in the parks in the early 90s!
My kids had those! They were so fun!