What would it be like to open a time capsule from 22 years ago? Well, I got to do that very thing this week. In 1989, the Air Force transferred my family to England for a four year tour. That four year tour turned into five for me, before I left for college at age 17. It became 16 years total for my parents, who then moved to Germany and still live there now, six years later. They recently bought a house in TN because they want to retire here someday (3 years to go) and have been allowed to get their storage crates out of the warehouse in Maryland they've been sitting in all these years. They also had some storage sent back when they moved from England to Germany, so half of what you see below is from that. A week and a half ago, Ben flew the kids and I down to TN to see my parents, grandparents, and especially be with my Dad before he deploys to Afghanistan. The day we went through our 1989 time capsule (aka boxes) in their garage was my favorite day so far:
After 22 years you kinda forget what you put in storage and what you didn't. I did remember one thing all these years though: my cedar chest. It was from my Grandma J, who grew up with it too, and it was filled with linens and special things for when I got married someday, a "hope chest" if you will. This year we'll have been married for 14 years, so I was pretty excited to see it. It was pretty damaged compared to it's former state, but I like it's new weathered look. I'm thankful my grandparents have offered to help drive it up to Ohio in May if it fits in their car.
It turned out that everything had been removed from my hope chest and put in other boxes and wrapped safely. The linens still had mysterious stains on them somehow, but I found some other things that I remember being in there: a special stuffed animal gift from "Pop Pemble" a local artist and family friend from when I was born and my baby shoes.
I found my old Barbies, Legos, Tinker Toys, even my Cabbage Patch kid!
We found plenty of baby clothes of mine and embarrassing clothes from the 80s that I must have thought I would either save for my preteen kids someday or did I hope that in four years they'd still fit me? The pink shirt and pants with suspenders and a giant floral pattern on the bottom left is one of those outfits.
My parents also found their share of treasures that day. Here's my mom with one of her Barbie's from the 60s:
Here's my Dad showing Z his shell collection from many years ago.
We even found some "Jarts" a yard darts game that was discontinued because it was too dangerous!
Here's my Dad's suit he wore at he and my mom's wedding in 1975!
This is me pretending to wear my mom's Swing Choir outfit. She made it. It's not a dress, it actually has giant bell-like pant-legs. I don't have a scanner here, or I'd share the picture I found later in the week of my mom wearing it when she was 14 years old with her choir. It's missing it's yellow sash, but it's still pretty fabulous, don't you think?
Here's my Dad sporting his spelunking hat. I'm pretty sure this and the Jarts made their way to the garage sale pile. It was fun to find things like this and remember for a moment though.
There's a whole room of goodies, mostly from their 16 years in England, to potentially sell on e-bay. There's another pile of fancy antiques and antique furniture (several hundred years old) to sell at auction. It'll be hard enough to get my hope chest up to Ohio, so there's no plans for keeping any of the furniture for myself. Here's some of the really old goodies:
It was a fun day full of memories and laughter, one I won't soon forget. I've been eager to share it with you all, hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of it here. To end, I wanted to share one of my favorite finds: a decoupage bottle my mom made for my dad when they were dating. It's covered with magazine clippings from the late 60s, early 70s! Ahhh, true love...
