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I have a problem. I kind of need a rather specific deck of cards. Because--reasons! Well, more precisely because.. my brain frets over each and every tiny detail that is off. You see, I'm hunting for THE deck of my childhood. Being the sentimental creature that I am. I'm sure you can sympathise.

My brain works in particular ways, especially when it comes to sentimental things, like the length I was willing to go in the sense of time and effort spent in order to find my favourite song of my really early childhood: Shakespear's Sister - Stay; or how I have to listen to Annie Lennox's songs in a particular order to unlock that feeling of Home; or how for me there is only one bank I ever consider as a bank. This deck of cards - it's on that same level of sentimental importance to me.

I used to play with them, as I did with buttons. They were characters. And kidnapping of the main character - the Queen of Spades - was a rather regular occurrence. Why so? Well, that is a question for some further, deeper pondering, but I'd guess it has to do something with relinquishing control/responsibility, something about being saved by kidnapping, as weird as it may sound. Yup, I was, indeed, a weird kid.

So once I found Shakespear's Sister - Stay, the immediate thought was, now I just need the deck of cards and eventually I was lucky enough to find the deck on the left. I was absolutely psyched to have found it, as at first, it seemed nearly impossible. Unfortunately, as soon as I received it and opened the package, my excitement sunk. As happy as I was to see it, I couldn't hide the disappointment of the quality of the deck.

The cards looked and felt cheap, with a glossy cover that made the shuffling awkward as cards would stick or slip unpredictably. They also felt as if they would come apart at any moment. The pictures looked too large as if stretched out too much, looking nearly pixelated. The number and letter font was completely different too.

Now I don't really remember the original card backs, but if I would see them I'm sure I could recognise them. These were rather ugly blue and I was not amused. This deck had two other differences, jokers were black and white instead of being in colour as I remember them. And all the aces had green leaves, whereas I remember spades being red, clubs - purple, hearts - light blue, and only diamonds - green.

This was such a disappointment that I soon enough embarked on the mission to find a more precise deck. Or so I had hoped. The next one was nicer to touch and had the correct fonts. But the pictures were still too huge. The card backs were not as ugly as the blue ones, these were red, but not that impressive either. Aces still not in their right colours and as a plot twist - completely different joker - a faun of sorts.

Well, three's the charm, so I found these cute tiny ones and couldn't resist. Blue card back with a golden rose - not the original, but so far the best ones. On the little format, the pictures look just right, no longer stretched out. But, nothing's perfect, so, a faun for a joker and aces all still green, with a family of birds flocking the diamonds now. Oh, well. Maybe I'll scour the far reaches of the net and eventually find the perfect deck. I just did a quick search and found that just such a deck was recently sold out on etsy. So all hope is not lost just yet. One day, one day..

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Hugs&Coffee,
~Josie~

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Music of choice: Shakespear's Sister - Stay