The Vault Of Nostalgery, Opened!

voltee ♦ October 18, 2010 ♦ 4 Comments

Item: Teeshirt Color/Fabric: Rainbow tie-dye, obviously. Cotton. Designer: Mrs. Erica Pitkin Where Purchased: Through Eastwood High School Athletic Dept. Years Owned: 14
Today, I have opened my Vault of Nostalgery. Yes, I know that nostalgery is not actually a word, but I like the way that it sounds. Say it out loud. “Nostalgery.” Fun, right?
Plus, everyone has a little trove of memories of things past, and everyone calls it a different name. It could be “The Memory Box.” Or ” Stuff I have Collected Throughout The Years.” Or “The Deflated Hope Chest.” Or “Little Trove Of Memories Of Things Past.” Anything Goes!
I actually have two. One is in a locked blue suitcase underneath my bed and has a lot of papers in it. The other is a drawer of clothing in a dresser in my spare bedroom. That’s the vault that I opened tonight.
I went into the spare bedroom to make the bed and tidy up before my brother-in-law comes to house sit while we’re in Spain. And I started putting some clothes into the dresser, into three of the four drawers. I couldn’t remember what was in the fourth drawer. Little did I expect the Vault of Nostagery!
Some things in that drawer I will write about. Some made my vision a little watery. Some I will absolutely, under no circumstance, ever, ever write about. And then there is this tee-shirt.
This is one of three high school-related tee-shirts that I still own. I actually have one from elementary school. For what purpose? To stay shut up and forgotten in a drawer with a ridiculous name? I will certainly, or most likely, never wear them again.
This one, though, this is my favorite. My friend Erica designed it, and to this day she is the single most gifted artist I have ever known. She has a living magic inside her, and I admire and covet it greatly. That’s not something that happens to many people.
The shirts were for our Cross Country team during my senior year. Cross Country was an entity that I loved and hated simultaneously. I was horrible at it. I hated every single step that I plodded through, double so if that step happened to be in a moving body of water or up a hill. Ugh. I wanted to be on the team because it was like a little Tribe of Fierce Warriors. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
The tee-shirts were clever and unique. It was quite a hassle to procure the rainbow tie-dye tee-shirts, though. The company that did the silk-screening thought we were insane. And I guess that we may all have been, ever so slightly. It was some of the best times of my life!
Here’s what the back looked like:
Yeah, it’s morse code. That’s how clever we were! And even more clever than we had intended; when we wore the tees to meets, the other teams would want to know what it meant. It drove them mad. Surely it was some strategic message or inspiration that would power us through! We were forbidden to tell, and all other teams were intimidated.
This is the message, in case you are rusty on your morse code; I feel safe telling it now. “wel to jun.” I can’t tell any more than that, or I’d be forced to kill you all. All ten of you.
Here is a picture of me wearing this:
That’s also my senior year. And that was my short haircut! Ha. This was on vacation, I think over Thanksgiving that year. We went to Florida, and it was cold and rainy, but I can’t remember where we went. I had fun, though, apparently. That’s one of my more classic dance moves, just in it’s infancy.
Man, though, I miss those high school days. The friendships. The laughter. The drama. The clothing!
Would I want to go back? Absolutely! To watch. I wish I could gather everyone together, sit down in a movie theater and just watch our escapades of those years and laugh. And, who am I kidding, cry buckets.
But I would not want to live through it again. I loved it so, but once was just fine with me.

**I may not keep all of my old team shirts, but this one, I have to.  It’s special.