TREASURES

Ever get a box full of random? I do, with some regularity. My mother, the sentimental pack rat, seems to have kept a rather odd collection of items from my youth and childhood, so I must've have done something good, sings Julie Andrews. So, every so often the UPS truck pulls up to the front of my house and brusquely drops a large box from Wisconsin on my front porch for me to discover. Let's look.

I open the box, and it smells really, really, really dusty and ancient. Like it should be from the 1800s. But no, it's the 1960s and 1970s, thank you.



This was something I made in art class, probably in 4th or 5th grade. Why my mother, an actual artist, kept it is beyond me. I named it "Shik." I don't remember why.




More art. I think it is supposed to be a duck sitting on a rock on a tree stump. I did not name it Marianne. Or did I?




Two dolls that my mom made me keep in their boxes. I pretended that they were both snotty rich Southern belles. It always bothered me that the one in the blue had those weird fabric hands, so I also pretended she was in a terrible fire and that's what she was left with. I had a lot of time to fill as a kid.




This groovy "Crayandle" was once rose-scented. It now smells just old. I think I was afraid to burn it because I was worried the paper would start on fire and drop off and burn my whole room up. I didn't really consider the option of taking the paper off.



Bizarre bunnies and a brain rock fossil coral thing.




Rock books! Except for that one about Smiles. Someone bought that for me. Can you imagine?



WOW!! My Spirograph set!! This must have been from the year it originally came out. And LOOK, it's COMPLETE! I took good care of my shit, people. And even some of my Spiro-attempts. Aw.



And finally, a filthy pink soap carrier filled with strange little treasures that I cannot remember getting and make no sense whatsoever.



I am not exactly sure what I am going to do with all this. Probably the same as my mom did -- pack it away and every so often look at it and smile.

From one of my favorite movies of all time.