Winter Olympics

Among the countless collectibles and odds and ends of Dad we are still going through, and will be for some time, we found several dozen file drawers or boxes. These files (large envelopes) are all labeled and some even dated, but not in an order at all. Not by date, or subject. A file containing my grade school report cards will be next to one with menus from a restaurant he visited once on a trip. Some things are recognizable as important or sentimental. Some make no sense at all. I decided that I will go through them all and document the more interesting, weird, or funny things.


I thought since the Winter Olympics are currently on that this would be a good time to share this funny little tidbit. These stickers are from Chiquita Banana's that featured the 1980 Winter Olympics. Dad kept about two dozen of these, stuck them on a piece of paper, them placed them inside this envelope and labeled it with his unique scrawl, and filed it away. It might have been something he metioned, like he did with many things, "Oh, you know, I have some of those somewhere, I'll have to look for them to show you..." that I often heard him say my whole life.

I got a real kick out of these however, since I would have been around 2 years old during this period of time and Mom had used banana's as a weening method for me. She had to ween me early since she became pregnant with my sister when I was just barely a year old. She had some guilt associated with weening me so young, so any time I wanted to nurse she'd give me a banana instead since I LOVED banana's. So, our house would have always been well stocked with them which must have enabled Dad to collect these.

When Martha, Krista and I found them we laughed until we cried, which was (and is) something we often did while going through Dad's things (there is also a fair amount of cursing and true astonishment). This is exactly something Dad would keep saying "they might be worth something someday". I dont know if it will surprise you ot nor, but technically they are. I have found collectors looking for or selling them on ebay and other sites. Now, they are only selling them for a few dollars, but for a once sticker that came with your banana, that's not bad.