i'm dating this to around the point where i'll start the alter-reality:

i think this was from the first part of 1989. my dad didn't understand my existential ennui about the meaninglessness of winterlude and insisted i play in the snow, to little response from myself besides boredom. this is feigned reaction to a request for a smile. i remember that, and wish it wasn't from outside the bounds of the story. maybe i'll do a flashback.

this is a picture of me on a bicycle from the summer of 1989.

i had a number of stuffed animals and other doll-type toys that i personified for quite a few years. judging from my hair, i believe it's the same period as the other shots.

i'm surprised i don't have more shots like this, actually:

i'm dating this to the later months of 1989, before it got too cold.

so, i'm looking at some old pictures...

i knew that old black ibanez was the second electric guitar, but i couldn't remember what the first one was, other than that it was a hondo. it turns out it was a hondo telecaster copy - clearly, from the pictures. i was very young, but i think i always assumed it was some kind of strat. nope - most obvious telecaster, ever. 

so, when the hannah montana washburn mini telecaster arrives, it can be the replacement for the first tele, which was traded in for the ibanez.

there was also an unbranded acoustic guitar, which would have been traded for the tele, and would have ultimately been replaced by the epiphone, which i still have. it looks like it was probably 3/4 size, but i couldn't tell you that at the time.

so, that's two more guitars that needed replacements, and it's all already dealt with.

i can't think of anything else to take note of that young, except that i learned to play recorder at school in the 5th grade

i'm working on the next batch of replacements.