Growing up So-Hi

Here's an old item that brings back memories!

My parents hung it on a nail inside a closet door in our little house in Danvers and used it to measure and record my height as I was growing. My sister's growth was measured, too. We would take off our shoes, back up against the chart, and try to stand tall and still while Daddy or Mommy measured us. I remember the feeling of the book Daddy placed on my head and how it wiggled a bit as he tried to keep it straight while marking the chart. He used the bottom edge of the book to guide the drawing of each new line on the chart.

My children, too, stood against this same chart years later. But then I forgot all about it. Decades passed. (My children are now in their 40's.)

While visiting my grandsons in California in fall 2012, I saw a different height chart posted on their bedroom wall. It depicts a tall redwood tree similar to the redwoods in their backyard.  I smiled and thought back to the times I had stood by the old pink and blue So-Hi chart while my parents measured me. 

I didn't realize that old So-Hi chart lay in a box in my house, forgotten. As so often happens, when you search for something else, you make unexpected discoveries.  I'm happy that this chart has reappeared.

I will bring it with me to California next week.  My daughter and I can have fun comparing her heights, my heights, and her sons' heights at various ages. My sister, too, can view these photos. I see that she reached 3 feet 4 1/2 inches at age 4, just slightly taller than my daughter's height at age 4. I can also see that both of them grew rapidly in the next few months. One of my grandsons is now 4 and a half. I can hardly wait to see how tall he has become.