My Escape

In school we were taught that in the early part of the century during the Great Depression, that many families would scrape enough money to go to the movies to escape the real world and hardships they were facing.  These days, a trip to the movies is almost the cost of a paycheck for some families, and there are many more outlets to see movies.  A movie theater has never been a way to escape for me.  In my 30 plus years on Earth I have maybe only seen a dozen movies in theaters.  I have wanted to see a few others, but I haven't really NEEDED to see one.  The most recent movie I wanted to see (which I never did see in theaters) was The Expendables.  THE FIRST ONE!  The last actual movie I saw in theaters was with my sister and her two nephews- Despicable Me (maybe it was Toy Story 3, I saw both of them with them).   One reason I never cared about seeing movies in theaters is more about the audio than the video.  I'm not a huge fan of loud noises/events.  I have a low tolerance for sound, so much so that I'm surprised I can't hear a dog whistle.

You may be asking why am I posting this.  Well, the last couple days I have been glued to twitter reading all the posts about the riots in Ferguson, MO.  I live about 150 miles from the St. Louis suburb.  St. Louis in general holds a special place in my heart, though I haven't been there in a couple years.  A few years ago, my sister (the one I just mentioned earlier) was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  As part of the process, she had to go to St. Louis every three weeks for chemo and radiation.  About the time this happened, I suffered a severe back injury that prevented me from working (which in the end I was never able to go back to work, but that's a different story).  Anyways, since nobody could go with her because they had to work, I usually went with her.  Every time we went, was a treasure because I got to spend time with her one on one.  Anyways, last year she passed away.  I haven't been back to St. Louis since, but I never want to hear anything as tragic as what has occurred in the last 3 days.

Again, you might be asking, WHY AM I POSTING THIS???? Well my escape in the last couple years have been baseball cards.  Well trading cards in general.  When I was a kid, just like many other kids, I had a card collection.  I remember at Christmas I would get a plastic candy cane filled with cards.  I remember once the grocery store we went to had cards dirt cheap, and I think we bought the entire box. As I got older and out of high school, like many, card collecting become less of an obsession. It was partly due to the rise of the internet, partly because there were no places locally to buy cards, and it was because I had a job and no time.  I sold my collection to a boss in around 2004, and figured I was out of the game (I only kept one card- a Kareem Rush card wearing a Mizzou jersey.  I kept it because I saw him play in college). A couple years later, my father passed away.  Later in the year, my mom and I was going through his stuff, and we found his card collection (he stopped collecting around the time of the baseball strike of '94).   My mom had no interest in them, and at the time I didn't really either.  but I held onto them, looking to maybe selling them.  After a while of sorting them, the itch came back. I kept them because it was a piece of my dad I could always hold onto.  After that I started collecting again.  It was a little here and there, buying stuff on ebay and getting packs at a Casey's store.

After my sister passed away, I just needed something to escape to, and that's when my obsession kicked back in.  I had time on my hands, and was going to just looking for a way to sort my collection when I found the website Trading Card Database.  After that I was hooked.  In November, I found a site called COMC (Check Out My Cards), and was able to buy singles.  Then found another site JustCommons.  I could find singles cheap on there and buy from there.  Now that my collection is starting to get sorted, it gives me time to talk about my collection more.  Which is why I am going to use this as an outlet.

Thank for reading.