life

It’s As Cheesy As You Think . . .

/ lovelyshadesofnostalgia / 8 Comments

but completely worth it and more fun than you can imagine. Of course, I’m speaking of summer camp. If you’ve ever spent time at one in any aspect, you know what I’m talking about. I was never a camper, I probably would have never been able to make it through a night away, let alone a whole two weeks. When I was younger, I would go to a sleepover and part way through the night my parents would have to come pick me up or a friend’s parent would have to drive me to my house because I missed home. Yeah, I was that kid. However, I did have two glorious summers working at two different camps as a counselor during my college years.

2001 Staff orientation, cabin 9. That’s me laying down there in the blue sweatshirt.

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Take Me Away, Kindergarten!

/ lovelyshadesofnostalgia / 11 Comments

I  mentioned in my last post that I got to visit my niece at her school. I not only got to drop her off and pick her up, but was able to eat lunch with her where I got to go to recess right after.

For the love of everything good and pleasant and sunshiny in the world– I want to be in kindergarten again!

Seriously, I remember my time in kindergarten like it was yesterday. It was clearly a very happy time. Though you probably wouldn’t guess it from my school photo. Yes, that’s me in kindergarten. For the first five or six years of school,  I am leaning and dopey looking in every school photo. I’m not sure why exactly. Maybe my parents secretly slipped me NyQuil in my grape juice and I was doped up for much of my childhood. Then again, I’m still pretty dopey looking. So it’s anyone’s guess. But I digress.

Ask me about high school, I probably won’t be able to tell you too much. Ask me about kindergarten and I can tell you in incredible detail about people and things we did and the building where I attended it. It’s quite amazing what I can recall from that time in my life. I’m sure we all have that moment when we were kids where we wish we could go return to. Of course, I would love to have kindergarten back, but wouldn’t want to have to go through all the years that followed – ick. So there is that.

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Where Does All The Birthday Glory Go?

/ lovelyshadesofnostalgia / 12 Comments

Most people seem to not like their birthday because they don’t want to be reminded of how they’re getting older. Maybe, it also has something to do with how not that many people care it’s your birthday when you’re older. Remember when you were little and you would get birthday parties with presents and balloons and cake? How come most of us don’t get that when we’re older?

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The Story Is In The Shutter: Part II

/ lovelyshadesofnostalgia / 6 Comments

After last week’s post on old photographs, it only seemed logical for this week to be about old cameras. (Very few things I do are logical, so take advantage.) These cameras produce those wonderful images and pieces of paper that speak more to a feeling than any contemporary photograph does. They have character and grit and substance.

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The Story Is In The Shutter

/ lovelyshadesofnostalgia / 9 Comments

My Grandparents on vacation in 1970.

Photographs not only hold images of our past and experiences, but keep memories and feelings fresh and help channel our reminiscence of those times. They are just paper and ink but are valued above most other things. Many times when people are rushed to escape from a crisis photographs are often grabbed first.

Contemporary cameras are all about pixels, multiple zoom, and auto-focus, promising crisp, clear pictures with the full color spectrum and detailing unmatched. This is all great and you can take some spectacular photographs, but what about those old cameras that gave us photographs with a little more character?

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Colonel Mustard In The Lounge With The Chainsaw

/ lovelyshadesofnostalgia / 8 Comments

Err. . .that last part might not be right.

It seems like most people are more interested in playing Wii, PlayStation, or Guitar Hero these days. Which I’m sure are all enjoyable, but I miss old-fashioned board games. As illustrated in this blog, I can be quite a dork, so this should come as no surprise.

Sitting around the table with the board game spread out in front of everyone. Everyone choosing which piece/color/character they’re going to be. Drawing cards, performing tasks, making decisions, physically moving your piece around the board. The physical exertion, the actual touch of game pieces, and interacting with other human beings face-to-face are all aspects that make game night and board games an enjoyable and nostalgic feat.

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Life Lessons: The Golden Girls

/ lovelyshadesofnostalgia / 6 Comments

I don’t watch a lot of TV, but most of the shows I do enjoy are older shows. Probably my favorite is The Golden Girls. I remember watching this show when I was growing up, right after we would come home from church. I even remember our priest at the time loving the show, making jokes and references in relation to it, and teasing how he would keep his sermon short so everyone could make it home in time for The Golden Girls.

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Have You Smelled A Book Lately?

/ lovelyshadesofnostalgia / 5 Comments

I have been called a “purist” many times, and when it comes to books, there’s no exception. My love of books goes back to when I could first grasp one in my hands. As a child, I remember carrying stacks of books around the house, and sitting while flipping through them long before I could actually read the words. I not only enjoyed the pictures, there was more to it than that. I enjoyed the look and feel of the book, the sheen of the pages and gliding my hand across each to feel the softness of the paper.

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A Limitless Playground

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Our gravel road.

Of the many things that seem to be lacking today, one of the saddest and probably most needed, is an outdoor childhood. That really encompasses so many things. Once again, as great as technology is and the ways it makes our lives easier, it also robs us of many incredible experiences and opportunities to stretch our own abilities and imaginations.

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A Fast Forty Years

/ lovelyshadesofnostalgia / 15 Comments

I can’t gauge this, seeing as I haven’t even been alive for that amount of years, but my Dad said this exact thing to me yesterday, “Forty years has gone by so fast.”

My parents’ 40th wedding anniversary is today. Yes, they’ve been married for that long. Continuously. To each other. I know, strange, right? They must be mutants or some of the kookiest people alive, because it seems so rare for people to actually stay married.

I’m not saying the times when people stayed together because divorce was a no-no, or people just stayed together because that’s what they did, should be brought back, but it’s more about the “throwaway” and “me me me” culture we live in now. Everyone wants instant results and no one wants to put the effort or work into . . . well, anything. For all of our technology, gadgets, quick fixes, and “hiring someone to do anything for us” society, the one area none of this really applies is to human emotions, relationships, and those deeper connections with another person. There is no “Successful Marriage” app for your phone (actually, there probably is, there’s an app for everything) that will make a marriage easy.

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