So, there's this place in the next town over called the ReStore. It used to be here in Montpelier, but their building collapsed under the weight of the snow on the roof two winters ago and they found bigger space elsewhere. Anyway, it's the kind of place where you can find fabric remnants and wooden toy pieces and recycled office supplies and whathaveyou.
Look what I found today:
I know, I know, you're all thinking, "Kind of cute 70s nostalgia piece, I guess. Whatevs." No no no no no. You people don't understand. THIS VERY PRINT hung over my bed for over a decade. Not a print like this. THIS EXACT ONE. I got chills when I saw it.
My mom has this thing about purging possessions and got rid of it at some point in the 80s. I've been slowly buying copies of all the books I loved as a kid that she saw fit to chuck, but never dreamed I'd find any of the art I once had. Well, guess what came back to find me? HA!
Ironically, I had kind of wished I still had this so I could hang it over Jane's crib once she came home (she was a Leo, too, by like five minutes). And now here it is. Cue Twilight Zone theme.
18 comments:
That is fantastic! Gave me chills to read!
On an earlier post note, my Grandma Johnson taught me to cross-stitch and embroider when I was a little girl. I still enjoy doing it - I've been working on a tablecloth for myself for, oh, the past 10 years or so. :-)
Sarah Teare
Wow . It must be beautiful, Sar. I'd love to see it! Can you take a picture and put it on Facebook? Please please?
Ok, this is like serendipity on steroids. I can't believe that this found it's way back to you. I wonder whose walls it's been hanging on since it was given away? If only Leo could talk.
I think Leo was on a mission to find you.
WOuldn't it be cool if you found a secret map to hiden treasure behind the backing paper and then you and Sarah and Tom could go all Nicholas Cage and find the hidden treasure...?OK.aybe not, but it would be distracting....
chills, totally. That is crazy. or is it? (twilight zone theme here, too)
I am thrilled for your ReFind! (now, if I could only come across that Holly Hobbie house I used to have)
We had a Holly Hobbie house, too! I bought it for 50 cents at a yard sale and dragged it home - our mom almost killed me when she saw it. It was basically a cardboard box with a door and windows that was big enough for a couple of kids to play in. I think I even slept in it a couple of times. Is that the one you had?
So how did you know it was YOUR print? Did you recognize the frame?
Wow! That's amazing!
I am also always on the lookout for things from my childhood, and things from my kids' childhoods that got lost, misplaced or destroyed before I realized how much we'd all love to keep it for posterity.
(If there are any master quilters out there, I have a replication project I'd pay big bucks for!)
Tell your mom I love how she is woven into this story -- generations of women moving through each others lives. This is the stuff that keeps me going.
I LOVE when things like this happen! I know how it found you and there ain't a doubt in my mind!! A TREASURE for you!
Enjoy your refind!
Grace, it was the same print in the same frame with the original paper on the back. It's not exactly a common print (anymore -- I don't know about back in the day), and my mom ditched it about 40 miles from where I found it. Odds are it's the very same one.
If you haven't already, please read 'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane' by Kate Dicamillo. Reminds me of this. ~The Linskeys
Wow, Tia. Whether it's the very same one (which seems reasonably likely, at least) or an identical version, either way, that's just amazing. I wish I could remember all the stuff from my childhood that I no longer have..oh, and, Leo here too!
I inherited (if you could call it that) this same piece from my grandmother, another Leo, and it hangs in my guest WC as it did hers. Also acquired the Virgo one for my own daughter. Jane was in CT, postcard on its way.
YES TIA! it IS the same one I had. And, though I don't think I ever actually slept in it, we most definitely did lay our Strawberry Shortcake sleeping bags out in it and pretend.
I'm feeling like Jane was there....a little reminder perhaps, sent to you by allowing you to find it....a little gift.
Sicut Cervus here. If you don't know it already, you just have to read "San Fairy Ann" by Eleanor Farjeon. It's one of the stories in her collection The Little Bookroom, IIRC.
Jane was here.
I didn't mean to imply it wasn't the same one - just curious!
(And again, wow!)
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