This torn, typed note came by mail in an envelope with no other note or explanation. Seems creepy, right?
Of course, I knew it was from my father-in-law because 1) I recognized his handwriting and 2) he occasionally sends random items to me by mail with no explanation or even future mention of it. It cracks me up.
On closer inspection, apart from the fact that the quote seems rather creepy and threatening when it arrives in an envelope in the mail, I recognized that it had thumb tack holes and recall something of the sort being pinned to the wall of Matt’s old bedroom at his parents’s house.
Matt confirmed, jokingly saying his dad slowly sends items from his old room to us in the analogous way that after we got married, my parents delivered two storage tubs and a sack of my childhood/teenage things under the guise that they “thought I would want these things” (when in reality I think it was to symbolize that I had completely grown up and moved out of their house).
I was a little sad when looking at this paper though, because it had hung on Matt’s wall along with other motivational quotes/photos/mementos from his high school running career (he was quite good). It had been important to him to type out that quote and hang it on the wall where he could see it everyday. And it stayed there for more than a decade untouched, but now is removed/destroyed.
Who knows why. Likely an accident related to some hubbub caused by the socially misfit dogs that end up getting adopted by his parents (his dad is a vet, and their 3 current dogs are truly a comical combination), and not a deliberate planned “move-out” of Matt’s old stuff as occurred with mine.* But the fact that the words on that page were once important to him makes me sad that it’s now marred…but glad we now have a piece of it to keep.
* In my parents’ defense, they have moved since I was in HS and my room at their house has been redecorated so while I like the look of it (I helped pick it out), it was never the “mausoleum” of my high school self that Matt’s was.
This post has Notes and tag: # notes from the past .
