Who Needs Photo Albums? We've got Amazon!

A few weeks ago Tom was asking me about a motorcycle phone holder he once had that he would like to replace. Since neither one of us could remember when or where that particular item had been purchased, I offered to review Amazon. Ah, Amazon. The modern day answer to the brick and mortar stores of yesteryear. Where would our lives be without the ability to purchase literally anything we need with the touch of a yellow button? When I look back on technologies like Facebook or Amazon, I can’t believe how long we have had those conveniences. It seems like we just got them, and yet, when I went back to my Amazon history, I have been using Amazon since 2002. 2002? As in nineteen years? As I searched for that phone holder, my review of 19 years of purchases was literally a trip down memory lane for me. It was like hauling those Creative Memories photo scrapbooks out of the attic and thumbing through them. 2002 and 2003 only referenced that I had made two purchases, but didn’t show what they were. Apparently, I didn’t buy anything from Amazon in 2004, but in 2005 we must have ended our Columbia Records membership, because I bought some cds, probably for the boys, based on the artists. By 2006 I was purchasing Guitar Hero, complete with guitar for a Christmas present. From 2006 to 2008 was mostly books or videos (remember when Amazon only sold media?) and the random cold coffee filtration system. At that time I was still teaching special education and wrestling must have been the main sport for our boys because those were the books I was buying. 2008 went to 2 pages of purchase history and we went from just media, to now adding band t shirts. 2009 continued with books, books, videos, and more books and a Sirius satellite receiver. Remember when we needed those to get music? As I continued on, I could track what I was teaching, what our sons were interested in, and my husband’s hobbies. I can see Christmases, birthdays, and the addition of everything from kitchen supplies, to toiletries, to vitamins. I can even see the waste. How many of those books did not ever get read? How much of that stuff fell victim to minimalization and decluttering? These days it’s a little bit more difficult to track my life via Amazon. The app has been taken off of my phone and I need the 13 character password to log in if I want to buy anything on my laptop. And the phone holder? Never found it. I guess we bought that in a brick and mortar store. Black Friday is coming. Delete that app and shop local!

I'll Know when I'm Old

In my younger days, one of my sayings was, “I’ll know I am old when K-Tel puts out a compilation record of 80’s songs. For those of you too young to know what a K-Tel record is, this was a company that released greatest hit songs for a specific decade. It was usually the decade following the one with the songs on it. So you can probably understand that Ultimate 80’s was released sometime in the early 90’s. I was only in my late 20’s by that time.” Certainly not old. Yet. I didn’t really update my “I will know when I’m old…” saying after that. However, there are some significant events that take place to put you in an upper generational category, whether you like it or not. For instance, your high school car is now eligible for historical plates. Recently, Tom and I wandered in a really cute antique shop in Indian River called Antiques Roadhouse. As we wandered in the door, we saw the usual antique store items from the 30’s and 40’s. Old furniture, housewares, cookware. As we were wandering about, something caught my eye. It was a display of old metal lunchboxes. “Oh wow! I said! I had one of these!” And then I looked down and saw a Barbie doll accessory case. I had once owned one exactly like it. A little further into the shop was an original Atari game, all set up on a TV that looked a lot like the one we had in our living room growing up. There was one thing, after another, after another that stirred up childhood memories. When did those memories cross over from garage sale finds to antique store treasures? Are they antiques? Am I antique, or should I say, “old?” One thing I can say for certain is that I definitely do not feel old or antique by any stretch of the imagination. Even so, the evidence is there. The camper I camped in as a child is now “vintage” and highly sought after. The banana seat bicycle I rode is collectable. The high waisted jeans I wore are in style again. As they say, “Everything old is new again.” Yes, I have creaks and crackles and wrinkles and grey hairs taking over my head. But I don’t make, “I’ll know when I’m old…” statements anymore. That ship has sailed. Fortunately, there is some good in being able to say “I had a Addams Family metal lunchbox just like that!” and “I carried my Barbies around in this same case!” I enjoy those memories because for me, they are happy.