During a visit to my mom’s this weekend, she announced that she was going to dig out the Little People house from her attic for Dev to play with. I had no idea she still had it. My mom’s not nearly as sentimental as I am. She doesn’t pack-rat useless stuff away all that often. So the idea of her saving some of my childhood toys was so surprising.

Surprising and also very cool. Because I LOVED that house as a kid. And all the little people who occupied it. I played with that thing endlessly. I took several of the peeps to the beach one day and have vivid memories of me and Mom scrambling to save them as the tide came up higher than we’d expected. I lost my favorite dog, a beat-up little guy (I’ve always had a soft spot for the beat-up toys for some reason). I was pretty devastated about it too. Apparently, though, I had back-ups. There were two dogs scuttled away in a plastic bag inside of the house (and two moms and dads as well).

The foam had disintegrated from the beds, but the rest of the house was pretty much intact. I even located the doorbell that I’d rung repeatedly as a girl. It was a bit of nostalgia for both of us as we watched Devin open and close the garage door. Maybe she remembered the allure of that toy and that’s why she decided to hold on to it all these years. I’m still a little bitter, though, that she gave my Mrs. Beasley doll to my cousin Valerie. That was a low blow!