I am sentimental to my core. Could it be genetic to want to keep anything and everything that means something to me, gives me joy and reminds me of a special memory?
Maybe.
Let’s be clear, I am not hoarder..seriously I am not. I did however grow up with parents who remember the scarcity of the depression and when we cleared out their house when my Dad passed away I decided they were classy hoarders.
A classy hoarder has a home that is well kept, clean and is probably a little stuffed with furniture but unless you opened a closet or went down the basement you would have no idea that it was a problem.
They never saved obvious trash but they did save stuff that had me scratching my head and saying WTH alot.
It was often suggested we hire a company to help us clean out but here was the problem. I found a box with 4 year old Black Friday Advertisments in it and some random stationary. Ok maybe they did save obvious trash. In any case I decided to dig deeper and go through the whole thing. In the bottom I found treasured heirloom photos. Yikes. Why were they in this box? Who knows but after that we went through each and every box and found some real treasures. Nothing of great value except to us. I did find some information that would make for great family gossip and rumors. My siblings better be nice to me 🙂
What does this have to do with a ticket?
Recently I found my old college scrapbooks. Not wanting to repeat history I decided to consolidate and get rid of whatever was unimportant.
And then I found this.
Wow. To be honest I only have a faint memory of this concert. I do remember what I wore that night because my older sister made a snarky comment about it . I didn’t hear it but my mother repeated it to me the next day in an offhanded manner.
“Your sister couldn’t believe you wore shorts to a concert”
Wait what? First off they weren’t booty shorts and it was a nice outfit. Second it was June and it was the 70’s where fashion came to die. AND most importantly I looked cute as one does at 19 🙂
Back to the ticket. Take a close look. Elton John. THE ELTON JOHN and I paid $8.75 for the ticket. I made a joke when I posted this on facebook and said if anyone could find a time machine I would gladly go back and pay for everyone’s ticket.
Just so you know I did the math with help from the internet and it said in todays dollars this would be $40 Still a bargain and maybe Mr. Google was a bit off but I also have this ad from college.
And $40 was my monthly allowance in college. So it all tracks.
There are no photos of me at the concert. No program even. It is a good thing I have the ticket to remind me I went. If I went today there would be so many photos, swag, t-shirts. The whole enchilada.
I did discover via my facebook post that many people I woud meet later in my life attended that concert. Who knew I had so many friends there that I hadn’t even met?
Compare this to the hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars parents spent so their kids could have the Taylor Swift experience.
I would guess the kids who went to the concert have her posters, the program, so many photos, sweatshirts, t-shirts and maybe a mug or souvenir glass.
The one thing I bet they don’t have is a simple paper ticket.
Hopefully they got some great photos and they will be saved and treasured as a special memory.
And maybe, just maybe they will clean out their parents house one day and find that their Mom saved the reciept of what she paid for that experience. I’m guessing no one will marvel at how little it cost to see the amazing Taylor Swift. My prediction is they will look at the cost, think of the memories and be grateful their parents were willing to do that for them. Most of all, photos or no photos, swag or no swag what they will have is a special memory…and just maybe they looked so cute in their shorts like me 🙂
Here’s to classy hoarders, we keep the memories alive.
As Always Keep Triing!
Jennifer