You know that something was truly good when you’re sad that it’s over.
My parents told me last week that they have officially sold my childhood home. They’ve been talking about it for years and going on tours with a real estate agents every weekend for months – but since they had said no to so many previous ones I got in the mindset that it wasn’t really going to happen. But they have at last found their next home – and don’t get me wrong, it is truly beautiful and just what they need…it is just going to be extremely hard to let go of the home where I spent one of the best childhoods that ever existed.
They won’t move out officially until the end of June – and you can stay tuned for what is surely going to be an emotional blog post written through tears including too many pictures of every room so I can always remember just how everything looked. But today I wanted to share a more nostalgic happy story about an old photo album my mom found cleaning out a cabinet she swears she hasn’t even thought about in five years. I went home for memorial day and my mom and I spent about 2 hours flipping through pictures from the first few years of her and my dad’s marriage. The whole experience felt warm and nostalgic, in part due to the several cups of coffee we drank and the blankets we sat under on the couch. But also because I’d really never seen so many pictures of my parents when they were young – and because it is really uncommon these days for a marriage to last 26 years (and counting).
So please enjoy these pictures from the 80s and 90s that I’ve convinced her need to be hung immediately when they move in to their great new house.
Seeing RED
My mom said this was a photo of the first time my dad came down to visit her in West Virginia. Obviously I was roped in by the head to toe red outfit (can you tell this was the 80s?) but also because she was exactly my age here – 24 about to turn 25.
Southern Belles
This photo was especially sentimental as I was not going to join a sorority until my mom told me how influential of an experience it was for her. She’s pictured here in what she described as “the best skirt in the world” at her college graduation from ETSU. She had no idea back then 3 out of her 4 daughters are also sisters of Alpha Delta Pi.
Kisses at College
I actually teared up a bit seeing this photo of my parents and cannot understand how they haven’t framed it yet. My mom would travel up to Ohio on the weekends to visit my dad at Ohio Northern University. It was especially sentimental because somewhere there is a photo of my sisters and I sitting on this same bench when they took us back to tour when we were kids.
Iconic Football Pants
Everything about this photo cracked me up – from the state of my dad’s apartment, to the stance, to the eyebrow raise, and of course to the extremely tight fitting pants that made up his first football coaching uniform.
90s Prices
And lastly, this picture proves that everything was better in the 90s. In a perfect world – a large pizza would still be 4.99.
While I know that change is good and can feel the excitement my parents have to finally be buying the home of their dreams, it is going to be very hard to let go of the place I was raised by such great parents. No part of me is looking forward to packing up and moving out, but finding treasures along the way like this photo album is one part of the move I am excited about.