Friday thing : ticket stubs

A couple decades of fun in a box

Like my mother and grandmother before me, I like to collect things.¹ I try to keep mostly practical things, but often the stuff I save has more sentimental value than use.
For example, ticket stubs - they have no purpose once a show or event has passed other than to remind me of a time I enjoyed and/or when my kids were small & sweet.² ³

Before I got this shadow box, I tossed ticket stubs into the bottom drawer of a file cart by our front door. Before that, they would pile up on my dresser or in various cute dishes & baskets around the house.⁴ Before that I carefully attached them to pages in journals or onto random collages.⁵ The bottom line here is that, in my mind, if I don’t keep the ticket, I will forget about the experience. And in a way, this is true; we can’t possibly retain memories of every event we attended, certainly not every movie we see. But when we have retain a memento - derived from the Latin verb “to remember” - it becomes a talisman transporting us back to that time. As I transferred all of these seemingly unremarkable scraps of paper into their fancy new home, a part of my brain sparked with images: me & my husband - then new to Portland and its parking options - running⁶ for blocks to Angels in America before they closed the auditorium doors; with my bestie watching⁷ glorious Alison Moyet on a tiny dark stage; the beloved Ted Baker-bought-in-Vegas dress I wore the first time I saw Leslie Odom Jr.; the looks on our kids’ faces when they discovered we were going to Jim Gaffigan; getting weepy at the Portland Cello Project’s tribute concert to Prince just a few months after his death. And these paper reminders are not just of pictures from these events but also the sense memories attached - sweat steaming from our fancy outfits, the perfumed & perspirating funk of dancing bodies, the silky smoothness of my dress and confidence, the vibrations of unrestrained teenage glee & surprise, and of multi-generational solemn adoration.

*Break Glass In Case of Emotional Emergency* (not really, there's a slot at the top)

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Speaking of saving things that might or might not be⁸ useful, I used old calendar images and magazine pages to decoupage the bland backing of my shadow box. I considered being meta and gluing some of the tickets there instead, but a piece of my psyche panicked. Part of the memory magic is holding a thing, I think, turning it over in your fingers to summon all the senses. It is a particular joy mixed with melancholy. Forgetting then remembering and hoping you don’t forget again, but also looking forward to that feeling when you suddenly recall…

In this world, there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we've left behind, and dreaming ahead. ~ Tony Kushner, Angels in America

1. Considering I write a [mostly] weekly post focusing on things, I guess insert a gentle Duh here.

2. Or, in the case of some circumstances - surly-but-got-over-it tweens (seeing Super 8 or Cirque du Soleil), obsessed teens (various Star Wars/Trek-related occasions), or near grown-ups about to leave their childhood behind (watching Lion, when my daughter & I first agreed on a Pretend Husband choice in Dev Patel, and going to WSU bowl games where we only saw them briefly between their friend time and marching band duties #NotCryingOverTicketStubs)

3. Fortunately these times usually overlapped.

4. Full disclosure: This is still happening; I need more shadow boxes.

5. Obviously that time was before children and, frankly, having enough money to go to many shows & concerts.

6. Honestly, I would remember this without the ticket because I despise running.

7. Also helping the woman standing near us who got overheated and puked on the dance floor

8. I err on the side of might be, as long as everything fits into some kind of attractive organizer. #VirgoEnergy