Starting Small

In 1998, I was entering public school for the first time, coming from a homeschooling establishment on the small farm I grew up on in the Midwest. I remember the day I walked out for one of my first recesses to see a gaggle of kids near the gravel pit that housed the swing sets; walking over, I saw a kid holding a stack of cards, brightly colored blue and framed in yellow. I was a quiet, shy type, so I looked on quietly at the artwork of the small turtle blowing iridescent blue and purple bubbles until he tucked the cards safely under a rubber band, into his pocket, as the end of recess was called. I was enamored from that point onward, trying to find out more about the 'Squirtle' and the other cards I saw. A family friend of 4 brothers were my saving grace. They had binders of cards, GameBoys, and each their own cartridge of either Red or Blue Version. Growing up in a very impoverished family, it was the first time I ever felt envy, something I was definitely not used to.

The middlemost brother, Bryce, whom of which I got along best, as also a middle sibling, rifled for some minutes, finding extra copies of cards he didn't need to get me started. The feeling when he gave me my first card, a Fossil Geodude that I still own to this day, I re-live that feeling every time I look at it. I was a man obsessed for years to come, borrowing and poring over Pojo magazines with the newly released Gym Heroes sets, drooling over the decks and tournament reports, reading every word of every page like sacred texts.

That was a long time ago; I'm nearly 30 now, privileged with a steady job, a wonderful home that is filled with a beautiful, unconventional family, and the resources to work on passion projects like this one. I want to share the fun I had with the friends I've made over the years, revisit memories with friends that have been with me all along, and to share the good energy that things like this create with people that may not have been as lucky to do so. About a decade ago, I completed a nearly full set of this era of Pokémon cards in a single collection, but have never been able to enjoy them in a game. I aim to change that, and I hope that if you're reading this, you might want to share in that joy.

The aim of this blog is to build a central hub for all things Retro Pokémon. I don't have the financial means to build and maintain a website at this time, but as I put back to do so, I'll make this page as close an alternative to that as I can. I aim to create events and meetups where I can, to share them here, to show the deck entries of other players to celebrate their creations, and to boost other communities' Retro Pokémon experiences as well. I'd like to share other Pokémon related things from our childhood era as well, including experiences related to the GameBoy games, speedrunning, and admiring other merchandise from the era. The final website will accommodate all of these in a much more digestible way, so stay tuned as I constantly improve our experience together!

I look forward to our new and old Pokémon adventure together.

-Ryan