Category: To Occupy my Time

Settle in. This is a long one.

In the growing-up trunk were three scrapbooks, compiled at different times. I’ve grabbed some fun things from them.

This scrapbook was quite a good quality, I’m guessing from the 70s. At some point, I taped all my postcards in it. In removing them, the pages were heavy enough that they could still be used. So now this now-empty scrapbook goes back to the estate sale.

I always loved the cover of this scrapbook. Doesn’t everyone wish that they created such memory-filled scrapbooks? This one starts with stuff I cut out when I was five or so, lots of Ranger Rick-type illustrations, but then transitions into teenager-me stuff. While it has a pretty cover, the pages weren’t giving up their objects, so this one ended up in recycling.

And here is a late 80s, early 90s version. (we like to think we weren’t wearing neon in the 90s, but we still were.) It was full of late junior high and high school stuff. I closely tracked music labeling efforts by the PMRC, and the Deep Purple trial, where parents of a son who committed suicide sued the band for their satanic lyrics.

Here’s a clipping from the paper that hung on the wall in Cindy’s kitchen for years. Friends Cindy and April made the paper as sophomores. JP, the band director, was pleased.

Also note the Converse logo circa early 90s.

Ah Weight Watchers. My first bout of translating food into squares to be checked off.

Like most women who have attempted to lose weight, I would be quite happy to be at the weight I was when I first started dieting.

As with most diets, I started strong and bounced around. I was surprised to see I got down to 127 (and a half).

Oh, Tannar Brewer. All my friends were in love with him at different times. Myself included. Our friendship peaked in junior high. We drifted apart in high school.

Here is a fun West Junior High emblem. (I’m not sure what they are called.) Also my Borah letter. I lettered in band all three years. I don’t recall what I had to do to letter. Probably show up to play for sporting events.

One thing I hated about my high school was that the people who lettered in sports received a full sized letter, while the arty people who lettered got this half-sized number. I was not a fan of my school’s intense focus on athletics and adulation of athletes.

I was among the camp who didn’t. It was an annoyingly big deal.

Hey look, that guy is still on the court and still issuing a lot of rulings that affect women in terrible ways.

I’d forgotten about this stamp system. It used to be you could subscribe to multiple magazines at a discount, and you would indicate which magazines by sticking the stamps to the order form. Some of these publications are still around.

Even when my age was in the single digits, I always loved marching band. I just checked and Capital High School’s dance team is still called the Golden Girls.

However, Boise High School changed their mascot from “the Braves” to “Brave” and stopped using the Native American imagery in 2015. Apparently “Brave” stands for Balance, Resilience, Acceptance, Valor, and Engagement, an acronym for the values of their student body.

See this early 80s Borah band uniform? I got to wear it from 1990 to 1993. They were quite old uniforms when we stepped into them. New ones came after I graduated. (Grumble grumble)

This was a very fun day. Also, I forgot about Guy Klinger. He was a fun guy.

Oh my teenaged self and sarcasm. This was a great place to buy stickers. This was in the mall. (a.k.a. Boise Towne Square, but when you just have one mall you call it “the mall.”) Also, weird styling of the address. Why is “north” before the street address.

Friend Cate Olson’s older sister Jenny made the paper. I really liked her a lot. She was the kind of awesome teenager I wanted to be. Both Cate and Jenny were good musicians. Cate played violin (or possibly viola?).

Oh my goodness, the band Cinderella used the Boise Pavilion for their week of practice before starting their tour. So very cool. Also I didn’t know they were here until it was over the week had elapsed.

I did, however, go with my friends to the autograph session. We weren’t a big enough town to have autograph sessions in record stores and the like. This was the only one I experienced as a teenager. I still have the autographed 45.

I saw the Boise leg of this concert, too. One of the lifts that got the musicians on stage was still slow when we saw it real life, just as it was slow in the article. Hopefully they eventually figured that out.

I was perplexed by this one. Why such a big picture of Motley Crue? (It’s actually styled Mötley Crüe, Idaho Stateman). Why such a long article? Did they really have that much space to cover a band visiting for one night while on tour?

The next page of the scrapbook provided some insight.

Apparently, I was not the only person to have these questions. It wasn’t just a front page of the entertainment section. It was the front page of the entire paper!

RIP 45s. That was my preferred way to buy music.

I’ve written about Walter Scott’s Personality Parade before. Let’s see what was up back in the day.

Oh look, it’s a nun-yuh question about Tom Cruise and Mimi Rodgers, with fun ageism.

And here’s another nun-yuh question about Springsteen. That question is clearly a composite to make sure the reader knows what’s up with that celebrity divorce.

Nun-yuh = non of your business.

Why in the world did I save this edition of Personality Parade?

My dad has always been a fan of newspapers, so we got the Oregonian on the reg. It was available for purchase in Boise, and Dad used to go and buy it at Albertsons on Sunday morning. So this was a fun find. Z100 is still around.

Just reading the list of song names, I recognize only 14 of the 30. I bet I would remember more of them if I heard them. Of the list, Michael Penn’s “No Myth” is still a song I’m happy to hear.

And since we have so many pictures anyway, why not show the back of the scrapbook? “Can be used for all subjects.” Thanks for the permission, Plymouth.

Also present? My band folder. Here is a practice sheet. I’m enjoying the retro computer generated page. This is from ninth grade. I’m guessing that some of those times were rounded up rather generously.

My first band trip! The West Junior High School Jazz Band went to the Lionel Hampton Chevron Jazz Festival in Moscow. We got last place, but I enjoyed hearing the winning bands and flirting with guys from Canada.

Why do I have a California license plate? I do not know.

I suspect this one came from the family car.

Here’s an interactive postcard…

…that is super creepy. It’s not from anyone. I liked it, so I bought it.

And thus ends the scrapbook tour.

When I graduated from high school, I used part of my graduation money to buy a trunk, which I then refinished. I then put many growing-up things in it.

Then I went off to college and it stayed in my parents’ garage. When I moved to Portland, I brought it over, and it’s been hanging out in my aunt’s basement ever since. It’s a big trunk, and I don’t have room for it at my house.

Because of circumstances, it is time to empty the trunk so it can be sold.

Inside were two jewelry boxes which were full of this and that. Some of it I remembered, some, like this piece of paper, I didn’t.

I think this was a cover on my 6th grade desk that I decided to save for nostalgia reasons (I guess?) Let’s zoom in on some of the sections.

Despite the lower right corner being explicit about not drawing on the paper, it’s full of drawings. Perhaps I meant that I was only one who could draw on it? I liked my wish to not have spelling. I know spelling tests went away sometime in junior high or high school. The returned for my senior year of high school, though, much to my annoyance. I still wasn’t great at them.

You can see another spelling related wish, to get 100 on my spelling test. Also a wish to make it to seventh grade (there was no doubt), an example of printing and cursive, and my friend Natalie’s new address in Fruitland. She was moving over the summer.

I like my illustration of Mount Saint Helens before and after, as well as Jaws and my celebration of 100 squares. I’m not sure what the 100 squares thing was about, but good job past me, for achieving that.

Also in one of the jewelry boxes? My Pizza Hut nametag. You can see that I was a service professional.

Thanks to the Human Access Project, there is a swimming dock in St. Johns. I went to check it out.

It’s big and carves out a good swimming area, plus there are views of the St. Johns Bridge (currently getting a bit of updating).

My visit on a hot Wednesday afternoon did not coincide with tons of people, but I bet it’s hopping on the weekend.

The Human Access Project does great work.

My resting heart rate bops around in the 65 to 70 beats per minute range. Sunday June 30, was my worst day of Covid symptoms. And my resting heart rate knew it!

Having made it more than four years without experiencing Covid-19, I thought perhaps I was one of those people with natural immunity. But I wasn’t feeling well the previous day, and though I managed to make deviled eggs and go out to eat, I just kept feeling worse and worse.

So I tested Sunday morning. As I have done before, I set the test aside to wait the ten minutes for the test to do its work. But at about the three minute mark, I walked by and that second line caught my eye.

I totally had Covid.

Aside from not feeling well (Sunday was the worst day with fever and chills and absolutely no energy), I was bummed that I had made super spreader deviled eggs and hauled myself to a restaurant. I should have tested on Saturday. Then I could have at least eaten the deviled eggs myself.

I suspect square dancing at the Reser was my contamination point. Bummer.