THE STICKER BOOK INCIDENT

A true story.

  

   Ann is my younger sister, being 11 years younger than I. She was a cute little girl who I love dearly. When she was small stickers were real popular. Stickers of anything you can think of just about and there were many stickers of all different kinds.

    Ann had a spiral bound sketch book for her stickers. This book contained her sticker collection. Each page was devoted to a certain kind of sticker, like hearts all on one page, stars, rabbits, cats, dogs, unicorns, that sort of thing.

    I’d take Ann on the bus shopping with me and we’d visit her favorite sticker sellers. To me they were the best in town for purchasing stickers as they had large and amazing collections. One was in downtown Portland which still exists today, Finnegan’s Toys. You could buy stickers individually from them at their sticker display. The stickers were sold individual and varied in prices. Once you decided they put the stickers in a thin small flat bag and wrote the total price for all the stickers on it and you paid at the cash register.

    The other cool sticker place was in the Jantzen Beach Shopping Center, only which a shell of remains today. Right by where the bomber tail fountain was located was a sticker kiosk that was run very similarly to how the other favorite sticker place was. You could buy stickers individually here as well.

    I also bought Ann quite a few stickers from an AA Graphics catalog. This place was located in Seattle, Washington.

    Anyway, it was the height of the sticker craze and Ann loved stickers. I collected unicorn and Pegasus stickers, I admit.

    Ann would put all her stickers in her spiral bound book. She’d take the book to school to show her best friends. Her and her life long best friend would show off their newest stickers and have fun playing with Ann’s Smurf figures and Strawberry Shortcake Dolls, all of which had a corresponding pleasant scent that matched the dolls name. And they also had fun playing with her My Little Pony toys.

   Ann loved this sticker book and she loved getting new stickers. One day she had been out in the backyard playing. It was a nice day in the beginning but anyone who knows or lives in the Pacific Northwest knows how suddenly the weather can change and on this day it did just that, a nice day rapidly turned into a down pour and just as quickly the down pour moved on.

    Ann went back outside after the down pour moved on. A few minutes later she was back in the house crying, tears running down her face. In her hands she held her sticker book now soaked. She had left it out on the picnic table in the backyard.

    We all felt bad. Mom did her best to dry the book out, hoping no pages would tear while the book was wet. With her cheeks damp with her tears Ann was hopeful her sticker book would be saved. We all were hopeful. None of us liked to see Ann so heart broken.

    The book dried successfully but it wasn’t the same. It was no longer flat but puffy, rain damage. Ann was disappointed and heart broken all over again.

    What to do? The stickers could not be pulled off the sketch paper. Once stuck onto it there was no way to remove them. They’d tear.

    Ann was so disappointed I couldn’t help but feel her pain.

    What to do? There was only one thing I could think of to make her feelbetter. I went out and got her a proper sticker book, one made just for stickers. You could put a sticker on the page and pull it off with no problem; the page was coated just for this purpose. And that coating would make the book resistant to water or liquid. If she left this one out and it got rained on it wouldn’t be damaged, same if she accidentally spilled a drink on it or someone else did.

    Ann was all smiles when I gave her the new sticker book. She laughed happily and she felt better too. I told her we’d go sticker shopping that weekend. I felt so much better inside seeing her bright beaming smiles. Together we got her new sticker book filled with stickers and it wasn’t long before I got her a second one. Ann enjoyed her sticker books and collecting stickers for quite a few years. As she grew up she moved from collecting stickers to the next phase, scrap booking.

Author's Note

In memory of my sister Ann to celebrate and honor her on her birthday, December 2. I miss you Ann, just as much now as when you were taken from this world.

Reviews

[Mark Manning]

As I write my two little daughters are downstairs ,roughly about the same age as your lovely sister Ann was in these photos.Your story Tina is both beautiful in it's simplicity and humanity .We all have family stories ,time and life moves our family memories on.....but there comes a time when we stand still and recall the love that intrinsically binds us .Thankyou Tina :) it takes a beautiful heart to write something like this .I'll hug my little girls a bit tighter when putting them to bed tonight.
Love from Ireland
Mark

[Calypso]

So, so sad. What happened to your sister? I'm sorry that something terrible happened to her.
This is so sweet its good that you wrote it down because then you'll forget the day you made your sister smile.

[Black Cat Fever]

Very impressive true story. This sure has its sad parts but overall its a beautifully written tribute love story to your younger sister. You did a wonderful wonderful job on this!

[Cliff Rhodes]

beautiful memories are the best and last forever

[Jaidyn DeVoir]

Beautiful story. It's a great way to remember her and to celebrate her life. You did an excellent job on both.

With Love,

Jaidyn

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

And i can guarantee that she is smiling as she reads the way you honor here memory... thats how to do it, talk bout things they loved about life... as a kid I loved those stickers too, they were fun to put on paper and draw around to create scenes.

[Eric Cox]

Lovely story. Cute too. An excellent write to honor Ann.

[Star Wolf]

An, this sure is a tear jerker. I shed a few tears. How sad and beautiful and tender and loving all at the same time. An awesome way to remember Ann on her birthday.

[Marie Harrison]

Tina, this is the best story. I was in tears when I read the author's notes. She's so sweet and cute too. What a fabulous way to remember her. She would love this story too. Both ouf you must have been very close! Lovely story.

[quixotic]

I remember collecting stickers myself. How nice to share in remembering how much you love your little sister.