My life it seems is often an attempt to sort the good from the bad things in the past. Sometimes I get so triggered and angry by things...but occasionally I'll stumble on something that triggers me in a good way.

This is one of them:

It's a Tracker skateboard like I had when I was 14. It's a warm sunny summer day. It's a time when things weren't necessarily 'OK', but improving. I was acting out as a skater kid I guess...bowl cut, cut off khaki shorts and a Gumby T-shirt. It was the 80s, and lots of kids did that didn't they?

Will

PLEASE tell me you bought the skateboard for yourself as a reminder to keep around, Will. I've done similar with childhood electronics and it's done wonders for me. I found Dad's 1960s Columbia Masterwork portable radio on eBay, antenna fully intact/extendable, carefully restored it - the pic below pre-restoration - and, yeah, even took it to bed with me! What a comfort!


And I think you just nailed something vitally important, Will. So often the talk on MS is about negative triggers. Many of us have positive triggers which, imo, may be more important because they can help heal us. Thanks for bringing up the whole subject.

Addendum: Couldn't resist, since I talk about Dad so much...and there, to the left of the red box, is his radio on the piano!

Wow, bowl cuts were in in the 80s? I had no idea. (Some of us weren't around in the 80s ) Where I live now there is a big skate park. Though it seems like more people are into bmx now than skateboarding. I agree with Lancer, and hope you do get the skateboard to keep around and remind yourself of good times.

I like your radio Lancer. My dad likes vintage kinda stuff. He had an old radio, actually maybe he still has it. It was supposedly portable but it weighed a ton. I remember waking up in the night and hearing him listening to the shipping forecast. (why? its not like we ever went sailing) But when I heard the shipping forecast again recently it reminded me of that. Like being really young and feeling safe and happy.

I agree that it's important to focus on positive stuff too. I do journal a lot, and when I'm in a relatively good mood I try to journal about stuff that happened that was good. Or past memories that were happy. Or I make lists of things that are good about me. When things are not so good I have something to look back at and to try and remind myself that not everything is bad.

Good times happened to me yesterday. I went to a concert - which I was kind of dreading, just the fact of being packed into a basement with tons of people. And having to interact with people and stuff. Didn't sound like fun. But I like the band so I forced myself to go. And of course it was awesome.

my feel-good habit was kind of weird for a kid my age in the day that i grew up. i'd go to flea markets and antiques shops to collect stuff. one of my favorites was 78 rpm records. i had found an old wind-up gramophone and it was lots of fun - not hi-tech at all! that was part of its charm - seemed really ancient to me. i loved finding the classics from the swing era and earlier - glenn miller, ink spots, etc. the records were cheap and easily enough found - but the really good ones more hard to find so that it was a bit of a challenge. i had a friend who shared this quirk and we could go on hunting expeditions together.
Lee

Arrr Will

Yes good times.

In the lad of Oz we were a bit behind with the trend of Skateboarding ...like 5 years. So I was too old by the time we progressed to the big decks (instead of the tiny boards of the 70s and early 80s).

For me it was BMX. We had a pretty cool BMX track in town (about 10 mile ride from my house). It had a 'table top' and 'camel humps. I stacked it so many times you can probably still find the scares if you look closely. You 'had' to have stunt pegs on the back wheels (even if you didn't use them) or you were really lame. And Helments...what are they? Lol

This is what my bike was kinda like - only cobalt blue.


The fashion was pretty much the same. Bowl cut/under cut and you had to get a pair of khaki army pants from the army disposals and cut them off just above the knees. (You couldn't get cargos in the shops then). And we hadn't heard of Gumby back then...but any cool 'retro' 70s or early 80s T-shirt would do. Mine was an old adidas T-shirt I found in the back of my dad's cupboard. If you were really exteme you had a black ACDC or Metallica shirt.

I don't know if I would call it acting out. It sounds more like the normal teenage phase if 'trying on' a version of you - to see if it fits. That is something most teens go through.

Arrr...Thanks for the memories - good ones.

Lee

Ok

I know this is totally the wrong era .... but I couldn't get this song out of my head after reading this post.



http://youtu.be/TIy3n2b7V9k

so funny - the different styles and fashions.

i was earlier - more the Beatles and Carnaby Street. another thing we looked for in atique shops and flea markets was stick pins - like the Victorian gentlemen wore in their cravats. i had quite a collection at one time - they went great with those 5-6-in-wide neckties! course i was like 15-16 at the time - but quite the "mod" dandy. Remember the psychedelic artist, Peter Max? my hero! and "Yellow Submarine" - the animated film!!!!