Over the Easter long weekend my parents went on a spring cleaning spree. They cleared out old boxes and did what the organizing pros suggest – created a keep, give to charity and throw away pile.
In the keep pile, they kindly set aside a box of things I had packed away many years ago.
Included in that box:
1 forlorn-looking Magic Curl Barbie circa 1982
I obviously didn’t pack her well. I mean…look at her hair. No, time in a box has not been kind to Little Miss Magic Curl. Here’s a commercial from back in the day advertising the Barbie Bubble Bath with Magic Curl Barbie in the starring role. This commercial is made all the funnier because it’s in Dutch:
😀
You can’t tell me that commercial didn’t make you smile…
2 Cabbage Patch Kids – now claimed by DD
These two have stood the test of time a whole lot better than Little Miss Magic Curl up there. The bald one is named Xavier (I think) but I can’t remember the little brunette’s name! Of course their adoptions papers are long gone.
A Le Chateau shoebox containing various nostalgia from my youth
This box of memorabilia makes me laugh and swoons my heart a little bit. It contains:
- – Letters from my grandmother. We corresponded often as I grew up (and still do)
- – An old Diary from when I was 11 or 12 years of age (I will blog the entries sometime…hilarious)
- – My grade 10 Home Ec award (when I was 15, I could cook a mean souffle and stitch up a shirt like nobody’s business!)
- – Notes passed in class with my high school friends
The funny thing about those notes I kept is that I don’t remember receiving them! Obviously I kept them for a reason but I laugh that I don’t remember why.
Reading through those notes got me thinking. Teenagers these days probably don’t pass notes in class anymore – they just text each other, right?
I assume that much like passing notes in class, texting in class is also a big no-no. But is there really a risk of the teacher grabbing your phone and reading your text out loud for the entire class to hear?
Especially when it’s a note to your friend about the cute boy who sits three rows over that you have a huge, like OMG serious crush on?
I’m going to hold onto my notes in case some day in this new Millennium, the Museum of Civilization needs artifacts representing a “teenage wasteland” of times gone past.
Perhaps these notes of teenage angst and glory will take their rightful place beside displays of Garbage Pail Kids trading cards and unnecessarily high-wasted acid wash jeans.
(Did these three take hair styling advice from Little Miss Magic Curl? I think so…)
Snickering aside, all of these items I am happy to have back. And I thank my parents for holding on to them for as long as they did.
What mementos have you kept from your childhood? Are they stored away for some future rediscovery or have you already opened up your time capsule?
—
*Mighty fine acid wash fashion photo credit to http://theemancifashionoflai.blogspot.ca
2 Responses to “Of times gone past”
Lynn
I recently dug out my Cabbage Patch Kids and my two daughters are in love with them. I have to say, it has been kind of fun playing with my old stuff with them. Yay to the Cabbage Patch!
melgallant
I can’t believe what good shape my two Cabbage Patch dolls are in. I mean, it’s not like I packed them away carefully. DD is in love with them. I’m glad too. It’s a bit mind-boggling to see her playing with the same dolls I did as a child.