Nostalgia and Letting Go

Nostalgia is interesting. Sometimes it just grips you and logic has no place. Many years ago, my mom had a box of stuff she was going to donate. She was a Depression-era farm kid who saved almost everything.

It was just chance that the timing worked that I saw this jar in a box when I stopped by her house and asked if I could please have it. Of course, she gave it to me; she didn't care about it. 

Honestly, I'm not sure why seeing it triggered such a visceral reaction in me. We almost never got to take anything out of this jar in my childhood. I think she mostly used it when she and my dad had bridge parties. She typically put spearmint leaves in it (like these). By the way, I love eating these but haven't had them in ages!

I'm glad I have it. I use it as a cookie jar. I really, really love this little jar and I'm not entirely sure why. The bell next to it in the picture above is another beloved item from my childhood. I thought I had written about it elsewhere, but I can't find a blog entry for it. (To add later???)

One thing I didn't rescue from my mom's mini-purge of her house back in the 90s was a grocery sack full of MAD magazine and comic books! She tossed them in the recycling. I was so upset when I found out. She saw no value in them and I explained that I could have sold some of them or at least enjoyed re-reading them. Ah, well. Stuff is just stuff.

Yet . . . why do some things tug at our hearts more than others? I've saved this jigsaw puzzle since the 1970s. I like jigsaw puzzles. I like words. I like fun fonts. But I don't especially like this puzzle. It's kind of "Meh." So I brought it to the lake, put it together, took this photo, and now it's in the pile to go to the library for their jigsaw puzzle exchange. 

 

I think there was something else I thought about in reference to nostalgia, but it's gone now. I have so many things I think about and I can't follow through on all of them! Time to focus on what's important . . .