“Treasures” From The Past: My Rolodex
by Jenners • 11/07/2011 • My Childhood • 78 Comments
My brother inherited our parents’ house after they passed away, and he has been steadily excavating through the piles of stuff they stored in the basement. (We’re finding out now that my parents apparently saved EVERYTHING.) He recently came across a “treasure trove” of my stuff and packed what would fit in a box and sent it to me. Although he called it “a big box of your crap,” I think a better word might be “a big box of blog fodder.” I thought it would be fun to write a series of posts about these “treasures” from the past. First up, my homemade Rolodex from high school.
Here it is … my high school Rolodex. Apparently not content to have an address book like other people, I had this small gray box that I tastefully decorated with stickers and, since I was in my “religious” phase, a homemade “Smile God Loves You” label. Classy! Let’s take a look inside shall we?
Oh look … a homemade filing system using index cards! Notice how I took the time to decorate the inside of the box as well. (Although you can’t see it, there are stickers on the bottom of the box as well.) I wonder how I created such a high-tech filing system for myself? Let’s get a close-up view of one of those cards, shall we?
Oh I see! I cleverly stapled each letter onto the top of the card! Notice the embellishments on the card … a giant E and a handy listing of whose cards are in that section. Take a wild guess about the types of people who would be listed in such a Rolodex? In reviewing the cards, I found information for various teachers, girls from my church group, some friends, my relatives and my dad’s office.
Number of phone numbers/addresses for cute boys? None. Zip. Zero. Nada.
I wonder why?
Stay tuned for next time when we take a look at my old wallet!
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I wonder what little high school Jen would have thought about you outing her like this.
High School Jen would have DIED of embarrassment … but at least she would have been exposed to blogging at an earlier age and could have taken advantage of it sooner and perhaps gotten a book deal with some clever blogging idea/premise. Harumph.
Love it! I have most of the stuff I stored at my parents house by now, since we own a house now, and they drive out here once or twice a year, they bring me stuff. It is kind of fun to look at. But I don’t really know what to do with it now.
I look forward to seeing what you’ve gotten!
I suggest a series of blog posts where you photograph the relics of your past!!
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It’s great that your parents saved everything. I wonder where half of my old stuff went. This is good blog material for sure!
You should see if you can track down some of your old stuff. I”m sure it would be worth a good laugh or two!
awww…very cool that you found some of your old stuff. Nice trip down memory lane I’ll bet.
It was a fun little memory. I’d forgotten completely about this little box, but the second I saw it, it all came back to me.
When you writing things like this it really makes you so much more three dimensional. Thank you. I think this is actually really charming – nice E. Boys phone numbers at that age – so over rated.
I’m in 3D! I’ll have to charge more for those types of posts! HAHA!
How awesome to come across a box full of memories like this! It’s fun to be able to look back and see what you were up to years ago.
It is amusing to see my younger self … and what a total dork she was!
Brilliant! I love it when we find things from our childhood
I totally agree that it’s all blog fodder! I can see that you’re really into rainbows and colorful stickers when you were in high school. I just love how you added that extra little curvy part to the E 
So will this inspire you to keep ALL of BB’s stuff too?
Well, I don’t think I’ll keep ALL of BB’s stuff … but it does make me appreciate some of it much more.
This is AWESOME! I would just always do the little address books. Somehow I got a new one every two or three years and copied everything over so I ended up with multiple identical versions just with a different cover. I guess that’s what you do when you’re a kid.
And I dare you to try at least one of the numbers!
I should try one of the numbers just to see. Wouldn’t it be a kick if one worked? (Or would that be kind of sad?) I’ve had so many phone numbers in my life. I love the idea of having multiple address books all with the same information!
Your brother called that crap? What is wrong with the man? I’m older than the rest of y’all so I didn’t have a velcro wallet or anything with rainbows or unicorns.
Yep … my brother called that crap. Can you believe it? HAHA! I guess you missed out on the velcro unicorn rainbow wallet phase. (And, as you’ll see next week, I did too.)
Blown away that this wasnt filled with numbers of hot boys…just blown away. Maybe your brother discarded them so they wouldn’t remind you of any past broken hearts
Trust me … there were no numbers of hot boys to dispose of. I didn’t circulate with hot boys. I still don’t!
I LOVE finding stuff like this!! I have a colleague who still loves (and has) a label maker :/ He labels all the stuff in his office with it!
Your colleague and I would probably get along quite well. I love label makers and labeling stuff. It makes me feel like my life is in order!
I love how your brother labeled your stuff. Hehe. I am amazed how your parents saved everything, I would love to have a Rolodex of old friend’s phone numbers….well…I guess that’s called Facebook now huh? It must be a joy to go through all your trinkets full of memories. Enjoy.
It would be amusing to call all those old numbers to see if ANYONE is still at them. : )
This is PRICELESS!! I look forward to sharing in your memories as you post about all your “treasures”.
I helped clean out my aunt’s house and learned that she too hadn’t thrown anything away in 90 some-odd years! We had to sort through everything, though, because there truly were treasures hidden among the junk. For example, she had a letter a relative had written her during the big flu epidemic in 1917 (or was it 18?) talking about how many people were sick, etc. in their hometown. Of course we also found things like the bazillion notes I had written her over the years. Definitely throw away items!
How fascinating to find letters that are now historically interesting. You just never know. Live long enough and your most boring notes will become historical documents!
Oh, Mrs. J, how COOL! I’d so love to find a box of my teenage stuff. Probably would run more to journals & elephants…I’m looking forward to future posts!
I hope you can someday unearth some of your past stuff. It is fascinating, hilarious and embarrassing all at once.
How fun! and I agree they are treasures. I do think you are right about our parents saving EVERYTHING!! I’ve been looking at the junk I’ve saved in a whole new light ever since we went through our parents home.
In the end, I’m glad they saved this stuff … even though I swore up and down that I didn’t want it. It is a little piece of the past to hang on to.
I love that you would have never called a boy. I think I might have called one or two in my college days, but certainly not earlier. Have we raised our daughters to be “loose women”? Love the rainbows. Can’t wait to see your wallet.
We’ve raised our daughters (well, not me personally since I don’t have one) to be confident and assertive women!
How wonderful to receive such a thing, it must have brought back so many precious memories. I confess I wasn’t happy with an address book either – quite sad given that I was a bit of a loner and had so few friends.
I had 100% forgotten about this box until I saw it. I totally cracked up. It must have taken me awhile to make it … and I didn’t have too many friends either!!!
I think you should embrace your creative side…obviously you have loads and loads and loads of good ideas….and the world can never really have enough rainbow stickers….can they? Your handwriting was really nice too….oh, and you should still smile, because God does love you….religious phase or not! There, I wanted to pump you up! Okay, now I am just thinking of the Arnold wannabe guys on SNL….”We are here to (clap) Pump You Up!”
Oh I remember that skit! “I’m Hans” “And I’m Franz” “And we’re here to (clap) pump you up!” Hilarious!
Such memories! And the puffy sticker on the top–I remember those fondly. I don’t think they make them any more.
I was totally into office supplies as a kid. I’m glad I’m not the only one. We had a gift exchange at school where you could “steal” a gift that you wanted that someone else opened. I took someones paper clip organizer at the age of 8 and was ecstatic. What is wrong with me?
Nothing is wrong with you that isn’t also wrong with me! I would have done the same thing. And from what I can tell from the scrapbooking aisle at the craft store, stickers have gotten much much fancier than the puffy ones!
How great that you still have your stuff. My mom didn’t throw anything away either — she gave us a deadline — get your stuff out of my house by this date or it’s getting tossed. We all came and rescued our precious belongings. Fun to see ourselves when we were kids.
It is fun to see our past selves … as embarrassing as they might be. My parents threatened for years to dump it all .. but they never did!
Oh, I remember those Dymo machines -such fun!
What a creative person you were – even as a girl. This is awesome!
I’m sure my parents held on to it. They didn’t get rid of anything. If my brother ever finds it, I’m going to tell him that I have dibs on it.
Oh, I remember the excessive use of rainbow stickers! I love this peak into younger Jenner’s life
Nothing like rainbows and little girls!
Too too cute! Are you still in contact with any of the people in the box?
A handful. Some of them are people I don’t recall in the slightest though.
An embarrassing walk down memory lane! I’m jealous of your creativity! LOL
All my walks down memory lane are embarrassing … unfortunately for me!
I had a box of index cards like that in high school.
It was full of Latin vocabulary words.
Latin vocabulary words? What the heck kind of high school did you go to? I didn’t know they still taught Latin anywhere. (Though it makes sense since it is the basis for so many languages.)
Jenners your version of a Rolodex is clever and creative! It must be fun to go through this stuff.
It is very amusing to see my life as it used to be … and what I felt was the epitome of sophistication and cleverness.
I used to make those too in elementary school but used milk carton with the tops cut off…thanks for the memories.
You were “green” before it was the ‘in” thing. Glad it brought back some pleasant memories.
These are such precious memories. It is so nice for you that your parents were pack rats (of the best sort) I’m sure more treasures will be revealed as your brother continues cleaning and sorting. I can imagine your parents enjoying you enjoying these memories as you go through this rolodex. I think it was quite clever of your to organize things this way!
I’m grateful now that my parents held on to this stuff … despite my repeated assurances that I didn’t want or need it. I guess that is what parents do: keep the past safe until you are really ready to appreciate it.
I love coming across stuff like this! I have my old high school diary in my closet but it is a little painful to read it!
Nothing like high school angst to cause you embarrassment years later. I kept all that stuff under my control since I wrote it. It was unsafe to let it fall into the wrong hands.
Love it! That is totally 100% something I would have done. Though I might have had a few boys numbers, numbers that I found somehow- not because I would ever call them!
I would have never called a boy … even if I had the number for one!
I love the rainbows, I think it gives it a little something extra. So, you were pretty professional at a young age, I wonder what the rest of these artifacts are going to tell us about you?
I’ve always had a thing for office supplies … so I’m sure I was somehow pretending I was a big important office person!
I can honestly say that I never had a Rolodex…not personally anyway. For work, yes.
Love the rainbows. Everyone loved rainbows back in the day.
I hope to gawd your wallet was one of those “rip-it” velcro wallets… was it? Mine was purple with a unicorn on it. Rainbows and unicorns. It’s a wonder I turned out normal. Bwhahahaha!
I was just going to ask if there were unicorns to go with the rainbows. Thank god Ti came along to save the day. (And my velcro wallet was blue with rainbows and unicorns.)
I’m sensing a theme here: book bloggers = velcro wallets with rainbows and unicorns. (P.S. The unicorns will come later in the series, though regrettably not on a wallet.)
As you’ll see later in the series, I had a “thing” for unicorns. Alas, I didn’t have a unicorn wallet. And it was hideous. Just awful. It hasn’t aged well at all.
I think that is so cool that these priceless artifacts have been unearthed! If I ever question myself when I stash my kids’ things, I will remember this story. I can’t wait to see what is next!
Stash away … your kids will be grateful years from now when they look back at it.
Oh, Jenners, this brings beck memories, as I use to make things like this all the time. I am not sure why we thought this was more useful than an address book, but I love the staples that were used to make the index! So, so cool to see this and to compare it with my own creations at that age! Loved this post!
I’m glad it brought back some pleasant memories of your younger self. How silly we were!
Do you still have the Dymo Label Maker?! I imagine The Little One would have a great time with that!
No, I don’t have it. I wish I did. Heck, I’d still have fun with it!
I always wanted one of those when i was a kid. I finally got one a couple years ago when I won a pack of organizing tools. I don’t like it anymore. Think I’ve already stashed it in my yard sale pile.
I like your rolodex. I actually planned to do something similar to that a couple years ago (except not as fancy as yours as I wasn’t going to put any stickers on mine) but never did get around to it. I am the procrastination queen after all.
Hmm…if I was a Canadian, I’d swing on by your yard sale and buy it from you!
If you really want it, I can mail it to you. I’ll have to see if I can find it and it may be a while before I can send it because of finances right now. But let me know!