Give Me a Reading

So, last weekend, Jennifer and I did some home framing of my collection of tarot decks.  We'd talked about it in the past, but had just kept putting it off.  We tried a few options and finally came up with something that we were both happy with.

The work got me to thinking about how long I'd been playing around with tarot cards.

It all started over thirty years ago...

[Cue wiggly vision effect]

I was living in Kentucky during my sophomore year of high school, and our church was hosting a How-To event.  In the event there were tables setup in the fellowship hall, and different people were there showing things that they liked to do.  One of my fellow youth group friends was showing how to do tarot card readings.

Now, when I told this story to Jennifer, she was surprised that he was allowed to do this in a church.  There's two tings about that.  First, the church I grew up in was a lot more laid back than hers.  Second, I always knew I could trust this guy, because he was strongly religious and in my opinion wouldn't do anything that might "jeopardize his soul."  That's also how I knew Ozzy Osbourne didn't truly have a satanic message.

So I was fascinated by the cards, and when I ended up moving away to Maryland in the summer, he and his brother bought me my own deck.  I'm sure my parents would have bought me one, but they weren't sold in bookstores like Waldenbooks or B. Dalton Booksellers at that time.

And so, when it came time to travel for band trips, I became known as the guy who'd do your tarot readings.

I did that through the second half of high school and in college.

And then I began collecting cool decks as I got older.  Which brings us to last weekend.  My decks had been wrapped in tissue and stored in wooden boxes.  They look much better now.

And the cool thing is that I can take the back off of the frames, and change the front card whenever I want to.