My pretty pink leather wallet from high school somehow survived over the years.
We might not have had iPhones for taking pictures, or Instagram and Facebook back in the day, but we did have a photo-sharing device: our wallets. Besides carrying money, a wallet usually came with several plastic pages in the middle (mine had 16) where one could save and share photos, as well as keep tickets, receipts and other memorabilia.
Neither of us is still sure how or why, but Meiling somehow ended up with possession of my high school wallet (I didn’t even know it still existed) and handed it over to me when we were in Eugene. What a fun bit of time travel I had going through it all! I still almost can’t believe how many photos I had stuffed in there, actually layers of photos under other photos. The wallet also contained my old library card, a school ID, receipts, and several raffle-type tickets for who knows what that were apparently important enough at the time that I thought they should be saved.
Here are a few of the things I found:
I was on the drill team during my sophomore year with some of my best friends. We all went on to other things after that year. (Note – all of my friends commented that you can see the mountains in the background, so unusual then because the mountains were almost always obscured by LA area’s then-horrific smog).
Photo booth pictures! I blame being 14 and not knowing any better for that hairstyle in the upper right picture. The photo on the upper left was taken at the Los Angeles County Fair where I ended up in the medical tent with breathing problems because of the smog.
There were several friends’ senior portraits. Senior women were required to wear a sweater and a pendant on a fine chain for their picture (a single pearl was considered very classy).
There were several photos of family members (except for my Dad for some reason). My mom’s hair and glasses were kind of wild in this picture but she was still a beauty.
High school crushes Stuart R. and Jeff W. Meiling wanted to know who the hot guy was with the towel and it took me a while to remember Jeff’s name! Stuart sadly died several years ago.
Finally, I really was a mere slip of a girl back then – what the hell happened?
Christmas Dance 1967 with Steve J, a friend from church.
It really was a lot of fun. The only puzzling thing were all the tickets I had kept – what were they for and why did I think I needed to save them? I have absolutely NO memories of any event where I would have received one of those tickets.
What a treasure! So funny to find it when you didn’t know it was out there waiting for you. I love pictures from the past and reminiscing while wading through them. Sweet!
I thought the wallet had disappeared years ago wondered how it ended up with Meiling. My best guess is that it was something my mom had kept for some reason, and when my sister went through Mom’s stuff after she died she found it and sent it to Meiling (without letting me know). I shared several of the pictures on Facebook and my friends had fun seeing them again as well. One friend had recently found her drill team uniform (had no idea she’d held on to it) and donated it to a theater group. I sold mine to someone who joined the drill team the year after I was on it because uniforms were kept the same for two years.
I am going to hold on to my wallet for the time being, although I’m not sure when I’ll look at it again because I poured through it this time. It’s like a time capsule though – somethings are definitely dated, but it’s also interesting so see what remains current.
The Occasional Nomads 
Such fun. What a walk down memory lane..
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It really was a lot of fun. The only puzzling thing were all the tickets I had kept – what were they for and why did I think I needed to save them? I have absolutely NO memories of any event where I would have received one of those tickets.
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What a treasure! So funny to find it when you didn’t know it was out there waiting for you. I love pictures from the past and reminiscing while wading through them. Sweet!
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I thought the wallet had disappeared years ago wondered how it ended up with Meiling. My best guess is that it was something my mom had kept for some reason, and when my sister went through Mom’s stuff after she died she found it and sent it to Meiling (without letting me know). I shared several of the pictures on Facebook and my friends had fun seeing them again as well. One friend had recently found her drill team uniform (had no idea she’d held on to it) and donated it to a theater group. I sold mine to someone who joined the drill team the year after I was on it because uniforms were kept the same for two years.
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Oh these are great! You are in a tie with Megan Rapinoe for winning the internet today.
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Thank you – I am deeply honored to share the same category as Megan Rapinoe!!
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Love it! There is nothing like tangible mementos.
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I am going to hold on to my wallet for the time being, although I’m not sure when I’ll look at it again because I poured through it this time. It’s like a time capsule though – somethings are definitely dated, but it’s also interesting so see what remains current.
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I suppose the modern way would be just to scan or take pix of the photos (which you have already done for the post!)
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I did take pictures of almost everything in there now that you mention it!
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