Sunday, October 13, 2013

More Treasures

Today's excavation into my many treasure boxes I keep hidden away in a nondescript cardboard box is a look into this box here:



which my mom made me when I was a teenager.  I'm guessing I used it to keep treasures from the time I was 13 to maybe after college, since there's an old school photo in it of a good college friend.  the rest of this stuff is pure teen Robin though.

Here is the interior.  Stuck to the purple felt on the inside lid is 2 Rocky Horror pins and my ticket stub from when I saw Nirvana at the Forum, December 30, 1993.








Here is a piece of paper signed by all members of L7, plus Courtney Love.  A friend got it for me.  I don't know why I wasn't at that show.  It was probably on a school night and I was safe at home reading Weetzie Bat or watching The Simpsons.



Look at all these precious treasures.  I see:  3 of my public transit bus passes, my school ID, an antique match box full of my punk accessory safety pins, a ticket stub for The Crow, a couple school picture/booth photos, a acute card that says Princess (my long time nickname), a collector's care for Super Life" that says Cosmic Cowgirl on it and someone has put my face in it where the original Cosmic Cowgirl's face used to be, a roll of the elusive 2 dollar bill, 3 school-issued cards with my locker code on them (I have so many dreams where I go back to school and still remember my old locker code), a pin of a Robin I made at the downtown Children's Museum when I was a kid, and a matchbook from my favorite Hollywood Blvd Heavy Metal shop, back when Hollywood used to be all Heavy Metal, and not the mish mash of Coffee Bean and Forever 21 that is is now.



Let's see here. Here's a couple more school photos, a business card for a taxi, some cute keepsakes, w packages of The Crow collectors cards, a vintage card about how cool women are, and Kathleen Hanna's autograph.  of special note:  there was a concert at Castaic Lake I wasn't allowed to go to; it was Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr., and Kurt Cobain made a surprise appearance -- ALL my friends went besides me.  One of my friends, the wild and deceased Peter, brought me back this empty packet of Custom .046 gauge strings.  He tucked this note inside:  "This was thrown into the audience by the singer for Mudhoney, after a mid song replacement at the castaic lake on 9/26/92.  on the bill:  Pavement, mudhoney, sonic youth."  There's also a note dated 10/9/95 that reads: 
"You were so sad.  You cried.  You wanted to hit someone but your bruises still ached and kept you blue inside.  Do you know what I mean."  It's very sweet, but I'm not sure who wrote it, because it's signed "Me," with a drawing of a bat underneath.  My favorite treasure among these treasures is a note I wrote to Santa, on a pad of Dilbert post-its:  "Dear Santa, I love you so much.  The only present I want is to ride with you ever Christmas.  You would not have to bring me any present except this.  Forever.  If you will just wake me up and say "santa is here."  I have been good.  Love forever, Robin".  Oh, I also included the helpful postscript "Dad's stocking is a boot.  My stocking is red."


Well, my laziness has now kicked in, which means I'm tired of cataloguing these treasures for now.  Here is a last overall look at this wonderful and bittersweet treasure box.

xoxo Robin

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Treasures

I have a few boxes I keep hidden away in the closet even thought they're full of beloved treasures -- this is because, while I love these treasures, I wouldn't have the concentration to think if I lived in a house where all these things were not kept in boxes.  Instead of thinking of them as being hidden away in a closet, I try to think of them as being kept in treasure boxes.  Over the weekend I had to delve into a couple of these boxes while looking for a photo album I really needed, and here, I have selected a few unearthed treasures to share:


My grandpa gave this to me and my husband the day before our wedding -- i may be a little confused but i think it's a commemorative George Gershwin envelope that he sent to Gershwin's son to have signed. 


These are a couple pages from a full diary my mom bought me at a flea market when i was a teenager.  It is  "Line A Day" diary -- its title page says "copyrighted 1892, by samuel ward company, Boss, MA.  The entries are from 1924 -25.  I like this page.  It says (it's hard to read this scanned copy):  "Ed telephoned that ? ? is very ill.  We tel. ? ? ? she is better but are very anxious. 
Wed 19.  "Maid died in night of diabetes.  Dr. Sherrite attended to everything.  (can't read the rest, except the last line), Feeling fine."

Thursday 19.  "Little Lola a darling and Murray red-cheeked.  All to supper and all to bed early."


The above 3 images are the back cover of one of my journals from 2001, my last year as an undergrad at the notorious Evergreen State College in Olympia WA, along w/ a poem i wrote in it, and a little torn scrap from a receipt for a "China Gate" in Seattle.  My left handed handwriting is atrocious so here's the transcription of the poem, which in places seems a little prophetic:



Though you're killing me

I am having a good time
I am young and that is fine
I will be chubby someday.

And though you still think that I am pretty
and though you still think that I am witty
It's that I'm sly and full of pity
You don't love me.

The moon's a frog old Huck Finn says
The shriners ride by in their fezes
and in a room of vintage dresses
you're saying goodbye.

And by and by the world gets married
and I am a bachelor, it's scary,
and by and by I start to die and then
am buried.

Some will remember me as a teen
who wore black skirts and lived in a dream
and cried when Cobain burst on the scene
and then got Prozac.

Some will remember me as a feminist
and some will remember I sucked their dicks
and some will remember I wasn't this sick
when i was a baby in my home.





This is my last walk down treasure box memory lane for today.  This is my absolute favorite zine every, by Nikki McClure.  It's from ages ago, and I hope she's reprinted it since, because it's so wonderful.  I idolize her writing in this zine and was looking forward to becoming besties w/ her when I moved up to Oly, but the devil had other plans for me, like that I'd masquerade as a boy crazy beer-guzzler and not someone worthy to ascend into her immediate social circle.

more later,
oxo,
Robin