Four Decades in Ironing Board Pad History. I Awaited Montage Music with Historical Interviews and Family Photographs

Mom put on her Walmart to-do list that she needed a new ironing pad. Dad and I easily found one and, lo and behold, it matched the Pepto Bismol pink she had me paint Cynde and Casey's room several years ago. After we paid the crane driver and forklift to remove items piled on the ironing board (and to replace them), I went in to take off the pad that was already there. Actually, it was several pads...a walk through 40 years of Amalfi Drive living. 

The first layer was 1970s Little House on the Prairie floral, followed by the 1980s MTV Hammerpants-inspired Zumba flare, followed by a simple rose style from the 2000-2010s, and now we have the Pepto-Bismo rose garden for the next decade.

"The layers add more padding, Bryan," I am told by mother, "but I give you permission to thrown the old ones away."

Is she sure? Too late. "Dad, TAKE THESE TO THE TRASH."

At Walmart, dad also bought two different colored shoe polishes and announced, "I haven't polished my shoes in years." 

I've never known him to polish his shoes (or that he has shoes to be polished) but he was excited by his find, just like the squeezable mayonaise to go with his collection in the back for the fridge. No grapes, though. "Dad, you have a gigantic bowl at home." So he asks, "Can I get strawberries?" of which we did and they were delicious after our potpies dinner. 

Actually, I think there's a can of off-white paint in that room that Casey had to have in case she made a mistake when stenciling roses on the walk back in high school. "What if we make a mistake?" Well, Casey...um.....

And there are piles of Casey's photographs all over the room that she must look at when she visits. 

Nostalgia is beautiful.