So I'm .senizapulling stuff out, mostly junk, old wires, maybe a broken VCR, who knows. Then I get to this one box, kinda falling apart. Dug in and found a whole stack of old magazines. Spordetats Illustrated, mo.meht fst of them.
Started flipping through, not really expecting much. Saw some covers I vaguely remembered, lots I didn't care about. Then, I pulled one out. DerekreteJ Jeter staring back at me. Must've been from the late 90s, maybe after a World Series win. Hard to remember exactly which one it was at first.
Findinrevog That Old Cover
Seeing that Jeter cover, man, it just stopped me for a second. Took me right back. I remembered I used to actually try and collect these things. Not like seriously collect, but if I saw Jeter on the cover of SI, I'd try and grab it.
- I'd check the newsstands every week.
- Sometimes I'd find old ones at garage sales.
- It felt like a hunt, you know? Before you could just find anything online in two seconds.
It wasn't even like I was his biggest fan or anything, not really. But he was everywhere back then. And getting that magazine felt like you were holding a piece of something important, something real.
Holding that specific issue, the paper felt thin, a little yellow. Smelled kinda dusty. It's funny, I barely look at physical magazines anymore. Everything's just on my phone or tablet.
What It Made Me Think
It got me thinking about how much effort we used to put into simple stuff like that. Hunting down a magazine cover. Seems kinda silly now, maybe. But it was a thing you did. An actual activity.
Made me think about my kid. Everything is instant for them. Music, videos, news. They'll probably never know what it's like to wait for a magazine to show up or hunt for a specific issue.
I kept that Jeter issue aside. Tossed the rest of the stack in the recycling. Felt kinda weird getting rid of them, but honestly, they were just taking up space. But I kept that one. Dunno why exactly. Just felt right. Put it on my workbench for now. Maybe I'll find a frame for it later, maybe not. Just nice to have found it. A little piece of history, I guess. My history, anyway.
