From the Stone Age

I've been slowly sorting through all the letters I received from friends and family when I was in college. It's been an ongoing project (and will continue to go on for several months) because I wrote tons of letters back in the days before blogs, emails, and facebook. I think I judged my personal worth on the contents of my mailbox back then. I wrote anybody who would write back to me. I have a letter from people I worked with at my high school job--people I could only vaguely remember.

It saddens me that I don't keep in touch via letters with anybody anymore, except my family. I miss Karen, my roommate from my freshman year; I miss Michelle, my buddy from my honors colloquium college class; I miss Wendy, one of my roommates from my sophomore year. I miss Bobbie from high school too, even though she only lives 40 minutes away from me. Bobbie was a diligent penpal when I was in college and in my early years of marriage.

I miss letter-writing in general. I might write to my sisters and sisters-in-law who all live out of state, if I wasn't bogged down with writing for college. Maybe I should write to them anyway. I do owe Jenni a letter.

But the reason I'm writing this post is that while I was putting some letters in a binder, I came across a birthday card from a family member dated 1987. The card was still in the envelope so I pulled the card out to put in the binder. A five-dollar bill fell out. !!! For twenty-two-and-a-half years, that five dollar bill has been cooped up in the envelope in a storage box. How did I, as a college student at the time, miss that money? Did I not see it? I must have! The card was opened, so I did read it. Did I save it for something only to forget about it? Good thing I didn't throw it out!

So what shall I do with my new-found, old riches?

When I spend it, I'm totally going to spend it as a 20-year-old, because that's the birthday it was for.

Comments

Jenni said…
WOW!! What fun!! That is great. It is a good time to get letters. I love getting real letters. I enjoyed the one you wrote me recently. And I wrote back! Not immediately, of course, but eventually.
TaterBean said…
what can you buy for 5 dollars?
Jen said…
What a treasure to discover! Tater, $5 can buy you a lot! Hair binders, notebooks, pens/pencils, a lot of candy bars. Oh, that's just a short list of some of my favorite things and all for only $5 (envision me saying that in my best British accent like that guy in the infomercials).

Sorry I've been missing in action lately. It's been too too busy around here keeping up with these kids being home ALL DAY LONG FOR 3 MONTHS. I thought I'd actually have MORE time to blog. Who was I kidding?!?