This week’s Friday Flashback is all about favorite items from childhood. Please focus your attention to the following photo:
What is this raggedy, waffle-weaved piece of fabric? And why is it the shape of Nevada?
Friends, this is my blankie. Or, more specifically, what’s left of my blankie. (8 square inches.)
Once pale yellow with satin edges, I slept with this bad boy for 6 or 7 years of my life, until the fateful day when my parents told me it was time to say goodbye.
Say goodbye?! To my blankie?! The one that I escorted around the house all day? The blankie that I rubbed across my face when I was sad and lonely? The one that I slept with wrapped around my pillow to ensure constant face-to-blankie interaction every night of my LIFE?
I wasn’t going down without a fight. I wanted an explanation! A parental mission statement including, but not limited to, how throwing away a harmless blanket would better my life!
Or so I thought.
I threw my beloved blankie in the trash at the promise of a Dilly Bar.
A 39-cent Dilly Bar from Dairy Queen.
Whoorl: Poster Girl for Bribery.
However, as my parents were loading my little sister into the car for our Dairy Queen extravaganza, I ran to the kitchen, grabbed a pair of scissors and cut off a small corner of the blanket.
(HA! A blankie AND a Dilly Bar! I outsmarted The Man! TAKE THAT!)
So, I’ve had this piece of blanket for my entire life. I don’t sleep with it or have any interaction with it really; it just sits in the closet with my sweaters, but I would be absolutely crushed if I ever lost it.
What’s your favorite childhood item? If you blog about it, be sure and leave a link in my comments so we can read it. In the meantime, check out these other childhood faves!
Girl’s Gone Child
Sweetney
Her Bad Mother
Mrs. Flinger
Oh, the Joys
Mamalogues
Izzy Mom
Katie
March 28, 2008 at 3:02 pmI am 36 and still have my blankie. She is wonderful. I still rub it on my face. It’s not as big as it used to be, and it’s got many holes, but I still love it. And it’s out on a chair near our bed, or sometimes, under my pillow. Yes, I still sleep with my blankie.
Don’t ever take wito’s blankie away. a kid needs his blankie.
holly*
March 28, 2008 at 3:22 pmi dont have anything from my childhood. well, i have one thing. i have a quilt that my godmother (aka. world’s biggest fabric HOG!)made for me using the curtains from my nursery which my grandmother had made for me. its a pretty dull quilt. red and white gingham 9-block with a red back. the backing is red with white stitching and it looks rad. i’ve been using this quilt for 10years now and wouldnt give it up for anything. heck, my son and i are using it right now as he naps beside me on the couch.
when i received this quilt, i didnt think it would mean so much to me, but it does and always will. i really hope to save something for my son that will mean this much to him as well. maybe i’ll just give him my red gingham quilt…
Mrs. Flinger
March 28, 2008 at 3:45 pmI love that you stuck it to the man. You go get that Dilly Bar and your little blanket, too!
And I love you for posting your shread o’ blanket. And for keeping it. Mine is also in my closet but I always like knowing it’s still around.
Christina
March 28, 2008 at 6:20 pmYou were/are one smart girl getting a dilly bar and a part of your blankie, I can’t believe they were just gonna throw it away ~ Gasp!!!
I had a penguin that i got in 5th or 6th grade that I slept with for quite some time I don’t remember being too attached to anything. Oddly enough I am attached to everything now!!
My Mom did make me a quilt a few years ago of some of my baby clothes and my baby blanket that I love and keep on our bed. Its my lovey now!
Aimee Greeblemonkey
March 28, 2008 at 7:43 pmfreaking awesome.
Aimee Greeblemonkey
March 28, 2008 at 7:43 pmOh, and if I actually remembered my childhood, I would have a favorite thing to remember.
nikki
March 28, 2008 at 7:43 pmThis is mine:
A few of my favorite things…
~moe
March 28, 2008 at 7:45 pmAt least you gave up your blankie for something worthwhile. I gave mine up for 2 8-track tapes (yes, 8 TRACKS – and I’m only 33). And they weren’t even good 8-tracks. One was Bill Cosby, which was actually funny, but the other? Oh, the other one was just sad – the soundtrack to Grease – the Broadway version. *sigh*.
I still have the 8-tracks. But no blankie. Now I’m sad.
Kimmer
March 28, 2008 at 8:13 pmMy favorite thing…today…and for all time…is the fucking Jayhawks. Rock Chalk.
HELL TO THE FUCKING YEAH. I miss you, Dev.
SHAZAM!
Kimmer
March 28, 2008 at 8:13 pmand Darrell Arthur – you can dunk me anytime.
Catheroo
March 28, 2008 at 10:22 pmI used to have a small bean bag hippo. It was pink and purple, with ears and eyes made of felt. I loved it. It was floppy and I could drape it on my shoulder and walk around. My grandmother gave it to me, and after she died, I loved the hippo even more. I wish I still had it.
I don’t have my blankie either. But I’m pretty sure my little sister STOLE it.
Julianna
March 29, 2008 at 9:29 amI have my blanket. His name is Elmer. I named him this when I was about 2. Why? I don’t know. There are actually two Elmers–my mom cut him in half at one point so that there could be one in the wash at all times. I have them both now, and still sleep with him and my teddy bear Becky, who has a much more normal name, but for whom my husband has created an alter-ego—apparently she’s kind of a whore.
Daisy
March 29, 2008 at 10:58 amMy children are 21 and 16, and they still own their blankies. The faded and worn Loveys live in their closets. Somehow, I think they would have pulled the same trick you did if I tried to bribe them out of this piece of their childhoods!
Izzy
March 29, 2008 at 3:16 pmWay to stick it to the man! I still have my blanket, too.
Lady S
March 30, 2008 at 7:26 pmThanks for the nice story and the great idea. I wrote about my bear.
http://strathconn.com/lady/2008/03/30/my-bear/