For those of you youngsters, the Summer Olympics were held in Atlanta in 1996. I was super lucky and got to attend the equestrian events, along with a few other things. I'll never forget:
- Watching horses gallop cross-country, in places passing so close to the ropes that I could have reached out and touched them.
- Lendon Grey doing a demo of what's good and bad in a Grand Prix dressage test on her Connemara-cross stallion, who was SO PISSED at her for doing parts of the test wrong.
- The 100 Brazilian fans being the loudest of the bunch in a packed stadium of 10,000, watching the Grand Prix showjumping finals.
- On a sad note, the terrifying bombing of Centennial Olympic Park, where two people were killed and over a hundred injured.
Anyway, I've been doing some spring (summer?) cleaning, and found all of my Olympic memorabilia tucked away in a box. Since it's only been 17 years in storage (eeek!), I figured it was high time to do something with it. So, I bought a shadow box and assembled my collection:
Fond memories!
My hat was signed by Bruce Davidson, and I have not washed it since he signed it (don't worry, I stopped wearing it years ago). All the pins were collected and traded for at the Olympics. The shirt was one my mom bought me at the Games, and I wore it to every clinic for like two years after - and boy were they popular. In fact, I remember going to a musical freestyle clinic taught by Terry Ciotti-Gallo, who did Gunter Siedel's choreography, and everyone there either had a shirt like this one or (even more coveted) one that said VOLUNTEER on the back. So cool!
So, now this shadow box is hanging in the tackroom, right underneath my poster of the Games. I really love seeing it every time I walk in, along with pictures of the boys and all our ribbons. It's nice to be able to keep all the horsey stuff together and on display!
I'm curious - does anyone else have any Olympic memorabilia, or any horse memorabilia that's special to you? How do you display it? I know that ribbon pillows/wall hangings are popular - what other ideas do y'all have?
I collect Olympic equestrian posters when I can find them on eBay. I have four but they're huge, so they take up plenty of wall space.
ReplyDeleteOooh, cool! Which ones do you have?
DeleteVery cool! I don't have anything special really except ribbons lol.
ReplyDeleteI've seen your collection of ribbons... there are some VERY special ones in there! :)
DeleteLove your shadowbox!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about ~cool shirts~ - around here, the only thing ~cooler~ than a current-year Tevis Volunteer shirt appears to be a Tevis Official shirt.
So which one will you be sporting this year?
DeleteI had friends go to the 96 Olympics and my parents never considered it. Really wish we would have made a family effort to go!
ReplyDeleteIf the summer Olympics are in the US again, you should definitely go. TOTALLY worth the trip!
DeleteLove the shadowbox idea!! What great memories you will have forever! :)
ReplyDeletePutting together the shadowbox definitely brought back wonderful memories. It was a very special thing to be able to see!
DeleteVery cool!
ReplyDeleteWe have shadowboxes of our horse's glory days, and I have WEG stuff I've never put together. I should do something with that stuff!
Terry, please post pics on your blog! I'd love to see what other folks do with their memorabilia.
DeleteI want to go to an Olympic event some day!
ReplyDeleteP.S. I nominated your blog for the Liebster Blog Award. :-)
I've been thinking about doing a shadow box with some of Skye's stuff, just haven't gotten around to it yet. Oh, and I also nominated you for the Liebster Award. :)
ReplyDelete