Around here, we’ve got this funny habit of putting everything we don’t want the kids to reach up high, and then later consolidating a pile of cabinet-top objects into a cardboard box or two at cleaning time.
Then we forget about them, sometimes for half a decade, at which point they become sort of time capsules, filled with outdated devices, random mementos, and a collection of assorted would-be-trash-turned-historical-artifacts. These are true treasure troves for our kids, with some items dating back to before they were born.
Here are the contents of one of such boxes, cracked open this past weekend:
Daddy’s old glasses – why are they still here?! Not the dorky glasses he had when we first met but the next generation.
My old bracelet! I am pretty sure my mother-in-law gave it to me the first or the second Christmas I was in America. Perfect for Josie!
My other old bracelet! I have no idea where that one came from.
A ring I bought for myself at one point, can’t remember where.
Mints! Eek.
A stationary collection from Jacob’s late grandmother Kate, including a letter she received from her grandson Lars when he was in England some unmentionable number years back. In his handwriting.
Did Josie ever love finding these!
An ancient hair piece of mine. Cyrus believes it’s a crane, though.
This is a curious one. This once belonged to my sister-in-law Julia when she was in her teens. When I first came to America years ago, I stayed in Julia’s childhood bedroom, and for some reason I took this from her old jewelry-making set. Not sure why I needed it, but it’s worth noting that when I was a little girl in the Soviet Union and made my own jewelry, we had no such supplies.
A laser point-pen! We took that one away for the fear they’d shine it into someone’s eye. This was a gift to my husband from his mom some Christmas many years ago.
Are your kids old enough to know what this is? Josie knew!
Curiously, this is not a music tape – this is a recording of the interview my husband did with our friend Philothea Bezin as he was writing his prize-winning master’s thesis on private schools and initiatives in our one-of-a-kind town, Viroqua, WI.
Philothea, you see, was the very first teacher at our town’s Waldorf school. Some thirty years ago, she started it with a class of three students, all of whom are older than I am.
My daugther is about to start the first grade here in a week.
If you are curious, Jacob’s entire thesis can be downloaded here.
I hear it’s excellent. I’ve never read it. Chukcha is a writer, not reader.
I can’t fathom why I still have these leads from an automatic pencil I used all throughout college in Bulgaria. I used it for tests, copious note-taking, and love notes (just kidding – I am not the love-note kind). How they crossed the ocean – and why – is beyond me.
Name this flag! Hint: It’s upside down. Jacob had sewn it onto his backpack while in college. The same college where I used said automatic pencils.
Daddy’s old lock thingie for his bike! It reminds me of the combination-lock briefcase my dad used to own in the Old Country. He took it everywhere, though it rarely contained anything other than fresh newspaper and a bottle of vodka he always kept there “in case of a party.”
Someone’s ready for first grade!
Twilight wasn’t always at the top of my book list.
A very curious artifact here! What you see here is a print of a sugaring-off event my husband and his dad helped put together. The sugar shack you see here was built in my father’s-in-law garage.
One generation’s trash is another generation’s treasure!
MY OLD BARRETTE! How could I have forgotten it there?
I bought it before Josie was born and placed it “up high” while she was still a toddler.
Doesn’t it look nice on her?
Which reminds me of my other time machine – my jewelery box!
