Police Patches, A Record Player and Reggie Jackson

My mom made me take my last box of crap out of her attic. I'm kinda pissed because I thought that I would be able to leave my precious stuff there until after she died. I don't want it cluttering up my house. I really wasn't expecting to see anything that really meant much because I had condensed everything down to one box before I got married.

The first thing that I noticed was a huge envelope with my name on it. I couldn't for the life of me remember receiving such a big package (shut up, not that kind of package). Upon opening it, the memories came rushing back. When I was in 7th grade, we had an assignment to write letters to the state police departments all over the U.S. We were graded on how many responses we got. Some kids got 48 patches. As you can see, I didn't get such a great grade. I only received 4 patches. The envelope was also filled with letters declining my request. I was a loser. The California Highway Patrol patch was the most coveted and yes, I got one. The picture at the top is from Alabama and unfortunately you can't see the troopers. One is white and one is black. I think that the picture was some crazy attempt to make others think that racial discrimination was a thing of the past. I'm wondering if this stuff is worth anything. I'm assuming that they don't make it a habit to send out these patches anymore because some weirdo would try to make himself (or herself, can't be to sexist here 'cause some women are freaks too) a nice new trooper uniform.


The next item in the box was an old record player. I don't remember where I got it but it's still in pretty good shape. My daughters have been thrilled all weekend with it. My youngest found an old 45 of the Monkees "I'm A Believer" and has proceeded to play it 100 times. The funny part was that neither of them knew that you could flip the record and play the other side. They also put the needle on the backside instead of the front. I had to explain the difference between 45's and 33's and they were thrilled by switching the player speeds making Mick Jagger sound like a Buddhist Monk droning out his prayers. This is making me feel really old.


The last item, and maybe the most exciting, was a bunch of baseball cards from the 80's. I really liked baseball then. After seeing a Detroit Tigers game I realized that baseball players were huge, I mean their bodies (and their packages, hehehe). I loved the way there butts looked in their uniforms. I was in love with Kirk Gibson. But I could always relate to Reggie Jackson because he was an outfielder which I was most of the time in my softball career. I wonder if this little beauty is worth anything today? When Mr. Sign and I got married, he sold his baseball cards so that we could go on an awesome honeymoon. I think I'll save these and try to sell them in 10 years.