Some of you may remember a guest post that my dad prepared for this blog last year.
Well, at my urging, he's back again with another tale about baseball cards from his youth.
So, without further ado, it's time for me to get out of the way and proudly reintroduce, once again, Dad.
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Cards My Mom (And Dad) Threw Out
Nick, our host, had the benefit of growing up in one place...his room was his his room...his stuff (ALL of it!) remains in the places he first put it...I'm sure that's quite a comfort to him...
I was not in the same boat as a youth...by the time I moved on my own at 17, I was basically down to my record and book collection, some clothes, and a wobbly black desk...you'll notice "baseball cards" aren't on that list...It is a big regret I didn't get to pass on my cards to Nick...here's why I didn't:
By 1974 (age 8) I was well into baseball cards...when I see a 1974, I can still smell the gum, still remember the box I kept them in, all rubber-banded into teams...with all my loose-leafed notebook pages filled with known-only-to-me stats and computations...life was good...
...and continued to be...we had a SMALL house...one bedroom for my parents, and my brother,sister & I shared the attic...and as long as I kept my cards in boxes stored under my bed, and didn't spill over into my sibling's area...Mom and Dad basically left us to our own devices!
...then my parents divorced...move number 1 was to naval base housing, as my mom remarried a navy man..."well,you don't need to bring ALL that stuff, do you?' I was asked...and at 12 that's basically a rhetorical question...I meticulously whittled down my collection to must haves (it still equalled 2 big bags!) and all the doubles, triples, etc. went to garage sales or friends...
...turned out a life in a navy family didn't suit my brother and I (saw that com in', didn't ya!?)...so off to my dad and his new wife's place we went..."wow, that's a lot of stuff" my dad said....so, you guessed it, more had to go...my brother & I shared a tiny bedroom so there was not much room for us or our stuff (never mind there was closet space throughout the condo...)...another bag went to, ironically, my step-brothers back at the navy house! I guess there was room for someone's stuff there...
...and so we come to the final move..ironically, to a bigger house!...but unfortunately, by then there wasn't much peace in the ol' valley...so I stashed half my records at a friend's place, and hoped for the best...the day we moved, I didn't find any baseball cards (or my other baseball stuff...pennants, programs, bobbleheads,etc) among the stuff going on the truck...then I heard my dad's immortal words : "aw, you didn't need that stuff.."
...and that, as they say, was that.
My one consolation is that Nick now has pretty much every card I had then...but it still would have been cool to hand over my 10 George Brett rookies,the multiple Aaron, Ryan, Yaz, Jackson, etc. cards...
So, parents out there, just let the kids keep their stuff...and they won't get back at you with blog posts like this!...haha!!
Hey Dad, LOL.. Another 66er here with a kid that turned 23 in Feb, how's that for coinkedink. I had several moves myself as a kid. When I got to adulthood (haha age 18) I only had 2 partial sets remaining from 78 & 79 Topps, and like a doofus I pawned them for a few bucks to get some gas money. I don't know what hurt worse, me doing that or all of the cards left behind in one of those moves. My brother was 14 years older than I and had "gifted" me his cards and his comic books, but no they were left behind in a house on Tennessee Ave in Ga. I know how you feel.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky like Nick -- I grew up in one house, and my mom kept my cards until, as a 41-year-old, I finally reclaimed them.
ReplyDeleteGreat story, though. It's not hard to see how all those old cards ended up in the landfills.
Great job, Dad! I enjoyed the story. Luckily, my father had a couple of big rubber-banded stacks to hand over to me when I was about 10 or so, and I have been custodian of them ever since. I think it's pretty awesome that you are still able to share the passion for cards through Nick's collection. While I love my old man dearly, he couldn't give two flips about cards these days. I doubt he even knows I still collect!!
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