Childhood Treasure Boxes

So during my photo scavenging for my contest, I found that blue school box filled with old treasures from my 10-year old self... And I was so bemused and delighted at the contents--- things that were of SUCH value to a young kid.

I took photos of most of the contents, but didn't have room for them on the contest post, so I thought I'd share them here in a post of their own... Because I am a true sentimentalist at heart. I cherish things that have meaning in my life experience, and keep "treasures" well beyond their usefulness... Because of the memories and the sensations and the feelings they evoke.

Because this is a quality(flaw?) of mine, I have more than a few "treasure boxes"... The footlocker with high school mementos-- yearbooks, notes from friends, a boyfriend's hoodie, dried roses, etc. The box of old stuffed animals I treasured as a kid. The box with my baby book and baby blanket. The box of photos/programs/tshirts/dried bouquets from the plays I used to be in. So many remnants of who I once was.... And me, too sentimental to let it go and throw it all away.

Do any of you do this?

In the end, it makes for some charming anthropology-- at least, in the case of this little treasure box shown here...

{The Blue Box-- plastic, meant for school supplies. autographed in my frou-frou 10-yr.old hand}

{First Peek:}

{Dissected:}

{Detail Shot #1: I bought these Guatamalan 'Worry Dolls' with my very own money on a field trip to the St. Louis Science Center-- how funny that I now live two miles from there!--... I LOVED these things. They fascinated me in their ethnic style, in their own little wooden box, in their smallness.... I ADORED them and took them out to look at them all the time.}

{Detail Shot #2: my stamp book. I don't remember where I got the first hookup-- maybe in one of those cramped black and white ads in the back of magazines? But I began collecting stamps and found a "dealer" who would send small, crackly glassine envelopes with sets of cheap stamps from the most odd places... I had never heard of "Maygar" or "Guine Bissau", and they fascinated me. Every time I got a packet of stamps in the mail, I felt a thrill that was somehow illicit, mysterious, and fulfilling... Never sure where this dealer came from or how these stamps kept making their way to my home. Thinking back now, I feel a similar jolt-- this time, wondering if I ever paid for these things?? Strange. It was a brief season of collecting, so if I never DID pay for them, hopefully the bill wasn't too large. hehe... Awkward. I'm feeling nervous. Must move on...}

{Detail Shot #3: coins and jewelry... Loved that big fake penny. I think it was a prize from my school class for winning a spelling bee or getting top scores on an assignment... a prize carefully picked from a prize box, selected from among stickers, cute erasers, colorful paper clips. The jewel encrusted elephant and the cloisonne butterfly-- true relics of a fanciful little girl. The more rhinestones the better, always. Even still. The "I Am a Child of God" pendant, a gift from a relative somewhere... loved, but never worn. I never really WORE my kid jewelry very much... Just hoarded it and loved it. The big gold coin is plastic... I think it must have been peeled off of a sweepstakes mailer or other promotional junk mail...So useless, but not in the eyes of a little kid.}

{Detail Shot #4: Among other random business cards, my mother's business card when she first started playing in her string quartet. She designed the logo. And two pages from a genuine 1977 calendar I got from a cute elderly lady in my church. She was cleaning out her office with my help and came across the calendar, and I was THRILLED to have the ACTUAL page from the ACTUAL DAY I was ACTUALLY born. The other date I kept was Christmas of that year. Ya know, baby's first Christmas and all that. So funny how COOL I thought these pages were....}

{Detail Shot #5: My poetry book.... So special to me. I mean, look-- these are "some of [my] best". Ya know?}

Oh, you want a sample? You do?

Watch out.... I was PROLIFIC at age 10. Holy cow, HERE'S a winner (appropriately timed, and not at all edited):

Halloween
It's Halloween!
Halloween!
Time for witches
and ghosts to scream!
Halloween!
Halloween!
Jack O'Lanterns eyes
will gleam!
There will be Dracula,
Frankenstein, too!
Ghosts and goblins will
all cry BOO!
Baby's and princesses
and Dennis the Mennises!
Rabbits and G.I Joe,
Mup-pet Babies too,
Masks and transformers,
A whaling Boat's Crew.
Halloween!
Halloween!
We all love Halloween!

I am DYING laughing. What the heck was THAT?!

(what's sad is that is STILL better than lots of my former students' poetry. And they were in high school. Yipes!)

Funny stuff... all of it. But what fun, right? Or just for me? Are the rest of you screaming, "throw that crap AWAY, you crazy girl!! It's JUNK!!"... If you are, you're probably right... But....

I just treasure it too much.

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