Welcome to Flashback Friday, where I delve deep into the piles of my childhood memorabilia so that we can reminisce, laugh at the bad perms, and finally prove that merely throwing away your NKOTB door hanging does not diminish your love for Jordan Knight.
I’m a keeper. I keep things. I keep photos and souvenirs and clothing and every single issue of my high school newspaper (and college...and middle school...and elementary...don't you dare judge me).
There are a million reasons I keep. I’m an only child and always had my own room to pile high with mementos. I come from a long line of keepers. I’m a historian at heart.
The reason doesn’t really matter - what matters is that we exploit this stuff to maximum entertainment capacity!
Let’s begin at the beginning. I’ve been journaling for as long as I can remember. Recently, whilst sorting through the piles, I found my very. first. diary.
Look at that beauty!
Awwww Lisa Frank, you and all your unicorn/butterfly/floral/rainbow graphics were a sight to behold! I shutter to think how much your technicolor dreamland has influenced my current aesthetic preferences.
Raise your hand if you owned some Lisa Frank in your time!
Or seriously coveted some Lisa Frank for that matter. We all know the line between cool and not cool was drawn with the razor-sharp edge of a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper. Apparently, Lisa Frank is still going strong if not in a slightly more anime direction - although I’m going to go ahead and say it was all downhill after THIS.
I digress. Time to examine my very first entry on July 26, 1991. Two days shy of her tenth birthday, baby Sarah had some thoughts.
Dear Diary,
I got this Diary for my birthday. At swiming party I let it about I had a slumber party. Everybody stayed up late. They woke me up and froze my pantys. Jaclyn said she was sorry but I didn’t believe her. I got a cool papack and pajamas from Adorable Child. Mom says they are no better than Wal-mart. Jenny thinks she’s got her period but I think she’s just trying to impress us.
Sarah
Wowza. Where should we even begin? I really cover the gamut of girl experiences. Parties? CHECK! Panty freezing? CHECK! Fundamental distrust of girl friends? CHECK! Mother-daughter conflict? CHECK!
A little background. This party was a big, freaking deal. I still remember it. I went behind my mom’s back and shaved my legs before my “swiming party.” Now, I all I can wonder is why I was in such a dang hurry?!? I don’t remember much about the slumber party except the panty freezing fiasco in which my friends woke me up to ask me where my underwear was so they could freeze it.
Stealth they were not.
Also, isn’t the point of freezing underwear that you don’t have anything else to wear home? Isn’t it a little less than impactful to freeze the panties of the host, who in theory has many more pairs in her underwear drawer... probably with lots of Lisa Frank unicorns and rainbows on the butt?
Adorable Child was the super-fancy children’s boutique in my town. My mother always refused to shell out the big bucks for my outfits, which at the time made her seem mean but now makes her seem super-smart. I don’t even remember the aforementioned pajamas but I promise you she was right and they were no better than ones from Wal-Mart.
My favorite part of the entry is that I clearly didn’t believe a word coming out of any of my friends’ mouths! Although I now have girlfriends I consider my sisters, my road to true friendship had a rocky start. My childhood girlfriends (almost all of which I still know and love) were no different from girls of that age everywhere. Consistently silly. Intermittently loyal. Occasionally cruel.
Still, I had such a tough time riding those waves of emotions and moods. I was a know-it-all and probably more than a little bossy (fine, a lot bossy) and I just wanted everyone to LIKE me.
Obviously, I made it through and I’m so glad I have this beautiful Lisa Frank diary to remind me how far I’ve really come.
Did you own any Lisa Frank as a child?
