So, my parents moved recently and thus gave me several boxes of my stuff they had held on to over time. One of the boxes contained old yearbooks from HS and apparently I got a couple from college as well. I've never looked at them since I initially got them many moons ago. I don't really keep up with any of the people from HS/College either, as I moved away for work and just don't get back that frequently. Regardless, I now find myself wondering what to do with these. They feel like clutter that I don't need, but it also feels wrong to just throw them out. So, I figured I'd come here and see what some of you may have done with your old yearbooks. Thanks in advance.
Yearbooks - Now What?
- Thread starter ByMyBeard
- Start date
I married my HS sweetheart and so we have evenings where we'll go through and laugh about our friends and signatures, etc. We have duplicates of everything, but neither of us ever picked up college yearbooks.
I still have my 1964 high school yearbook. It, along with my (lame-o) college yearbook and my wife's 1968 high school yearbook, have occupied a corner of our bookshelves, and followed us around since we married in 1969. Although we lived in different States, my wife like me was glad to leave HS. We never look at them, and never kept in touch with anyone after graduating. They just seem to follow us around. Every time we move and unpack, they're back. I think as you age, the mentality just becomes, "let the kids and grandkids deal with it after we pass"".
What I really miss losing is the National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook parody. I think I lent it to a cousin and never got it back. NL nailed it and it's probably the reason I held onto my yearbook, hoping one day I'll find a copy.
What I really miss losing is the National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook parody. I think I lent it to a cousin and never got it back. NL nailed it and it's probably the reason I held onto my yearbook, hoping one day I'll find a copy.
Get rid of them. If you don't it's just more stuff for your kids to get rid of after you die.
They are useful if you ever go to reunions. There are various yearbook available on-line. I do not know if the places that make them available would be interested in yours. There may be a market on Ebay.
It's somewhat comforting to know that our adult kids, and grandkids, will have to grow up and deal with that hassle, like every generation before us. Hopefully, it will be a wakeup call to them. We're just passing along that "life" experience. At least we sold our house last year, so our kids won't have to deal with that hassle, like we did.
Put them in a box and hold on to them. It's not just a roll call list for reunions, it's a snapshot of your life past, and people, things and events of the time.
If you toss them, as sure as we are chatting here now, there will come a time when you will regret doing so.
So what if your kids have to throw away one more box, do you think that's such a big deal to them?
As a person who has absolutely nothing, no keepsakes, no remembrances - nothing from my youth, from my parents or grand parents, or my time in the service, I am constantly envious of those who do, and who can look back in their golden years at a time they can remember fondly.
Don't let the worry of keeping one box steal that from you.
If you toss them, as sure as we are chatting here now, there will come a time when you will regret doing so.
So what if your kids have to throw away one more box, do you think that's such a big deal to them?
As a person who has absolutely nothing, no keepsakes, no remembrances - nothing from my youth, from my parents or grand parents, or my time in the service, I am constantly envious of those who do, and who can look back in their golden years at a time they can remember fondly.
Don't let the worry of keeping one box steal that from you.
I agree with Phil. I tossed all my stuff in a "loner/isolationist" huff shortly after I graduated. I regret doing it, too. So much of who you are was shaped and formed during those years.... I know, "life goes on," but that time period deserves more than a cold shoulder and the trash can.
I plan on keeping my yearbooks until I pass. Maybe they will be tossed by the next generation, but maybe they will be more appreciated a few generations later. Digital images clog flash drives and the social interweb today, but who wouldn't want to be able to look at old photos a hundred years later, especially if they were of your ancestor. To see their clothes, hair style 
, etc.
, etc.
I have all of mine from grades 1-12. They take up very little space in my bookcase. I have all of my report cards, school dance pics, and all kinds of other stuff from those years in a storage box. I couldn't imagine tossing them. They are part of what shaped me into who I am. Someone else can choose to toss them when I am gone.
mine are in a box somewhere. I don't really look at them, but it's not like they take up so much room I feel the need to throw them away. It's hardly a set of Encyclopaedia Brittanica from 1986.
Geez, Phil, that was profound. You made me cry a little. Thanks for sharing that.
I suppose another thing the OP could do is to scan the yearbooks and put them in an electronic file. That way they would still be there with minimal space being taken up.
You're lucky. My mom never thought anything was important but "her stuff". I even had to apply for my own birth certificate before I got married. I never did find any records of my baptism or confirmation. All my baseball, and other bubble gum cards, from 50s & early 60s, were tossed when I went away to college in '64. She also trashed boxes of Golden and Silver Age comics. "You don't need them" was her response when I came home for break. In later years, I enjoyed rubbing in how rich we'd be if she just had just left my stuff alone. Learning from her mistakes, I got into genealogy in the 1990s and, along with a computer program, keep a presentation binder with plastic sleeves in a safe holding birth, death and other original certificates for us, those before us, our daughters and granddaughters.
Many of them are available online
Keep them, it’s just a few books.
- Thread starter
- #16
You've obviously never met my wife...
For the record, I was able to thin out a few of the extraneous items that were included with the yearbooks. Now everything fit nicely in a bankers box. Which I then hauled up into the attic with the Christmas stuff so it is out of the way. Perhaps one day, there'll be a spot on a shelf for them somewhere. Or my kids will find them after I fall out of the attic hauling down a Christmas tree breaking my back. Either way, the wife is happy now and I have yearbooks that may eventually be looked at again in the future.
My father is doing this now (he is 74 in fantastic health). A year ago he sent me all the paperwork that makes me executor after he goes, as well as all the instructions, etc. I hate thinking about it, but it is something that must be done. Death of a parent is bad enough without having a bunch of stuff dropped in your lap willy nilly.
I can see this with somethings, but I am going to toss mine. Hell, I have picked them up a couple times since 86, my grandchildren won't care about them. I do have something that will be passed on that will be treasured. My one granddaughter will love my Cordoba C7 classical guitar. One grandson will want my Case knives.
I kept my Mother's yearbooks from the 1920s, high school and college. They meant a lot to her, reminders of a carefree time before the depression and war.I have my own yearbooks too, from junior high on through the tumultuous 60s. I'll have to get rid of them all a few years from now when I downsize and move. But it will feel like something essential is gone, two little lives nobody will ever care about, but that had a certain grace and beauty all the same.
Digitize them.
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