Monthly Archives: February 2023

What’s in Your Wallet? — Dad

Family, Memories, Things, ,

I made a similar post about things in my Mom’s wallet about a year and a half ago. Here are some from my Dad’s wallet. These were probably what was in his wallet when he died.

Dad’s Social Security Card — I was shocked to see that his middle name is Manvill here. I always thought it was Manuel
BC/BS Card
Credit card from now defunct Joseph Spiess Company– an Elgin institution for decades
Medicare Card
Last drivers license

Pee-wee Herman and Chairy

Memories, Things, , ,

I thought I’d written about Pee-Wee and Chairy somewhere but it is not coming up on a search here or on another blog.

The backstory is simple. I loved Pee-wee’s Playhouse in the late 1980s and early 1990s and couldn’t wait to share it with my future children. The colorful set and wacky characters were perfect for my slightly off-kilter sense of humor. So one Christmas my mom presented me with a talking Pee-wee Herman doll and a Chairy puppet.

I came across them a couple of months ago when we had to clear out the storage area of our attic to prepare for a roof replacement. They always bring me joy — and a little sadness too. The joy is remembering the fun times I had watching Pee-wee’s Playhouse; the sadness is because I never got to share the program with my kids. Paul Rubens was cancelled (before that was even a term) the day my first child was born after being arrested for masturbating in a movie theater (which was showing porn for goodness sake). The reruns of Pee-wee’s Playhouse were taken off the air a few days after Clare was born.

While Rubens has made a comeback of sorts, it’s not the same. I suppose Pee-wee and Chairy will go back into storage — there’s no way I am giving them away — but for now they’ll sit on the roof of the dollhouse in front of the window in the attic.

Pee-wee not fiddling on the roof

Dona’s Library

Blogging, Memories, Reading,

I’ve been blogging about some of my childhood books on Cedar Waxwing Reads. Many of these books have my name written on the inside and a book number.

My dad built bookshelves in my bedroom and they were mostly filled with books, including a set of encyclopedias.

This is what it looked like empty when the house was on the market in 2017.

Here is a bit of it when I was in middle school.

Since I went to the library a lot I guess I wanted my own little library when I was a kid so I wrote my name in each book and numbered the books — I don’t know how I ordered the books — maybe alphabetically. Tales from Hans Christen Anderson was book number 18 and So Small was book number 33. Birds Eat and Eat and Eat was book number 2, so I think it was alphabetically. And I have a very vague memory of being annoyed when I got a new book (probably early in the alphabet)and had to change all the other book numbers.