November 28, 2010, to be accurate. I was living in a rental at this time, it was a townhouse style, two-room 1 and a 1/2 bath.
I was bike commuting to work at this time, year round (we have real winters here) as I got rid of my car to save money and make the rent payment. I had originally come to this particular town to go to school to be a G.I.Joe designer. Okay, Industrial Designer.
I didn't know what my spouse was at that time. Something was always a little off about her. Flash forward to 2025, now I know what she is. And I know what government entitlements allow other people to take from you.
But here in this basement in the picture, was where I spread out the largest amount of my entire toy collection. My entire life's collection of everything really when I think back on it.
At this time, making sure the bills got paid, the kid was supported, was the priority. And the job I had was shit. I actually sold a lot of my stuff and used a large portion to buy my kid toys. He had a large amount of Lego's paid for by me selling off my old toys. He had more Lego's than I had at his age.
But here, in this 2010 photo is my childhood 1983 G.I.Joe Headquarters. I bought the Admiral Keel Haul and General Flagg off the store pegs new back in the '90's. The General Tomahawk I bought in the twin pack and along with many A.R.A.H.C. figures were my "traveling" figures while I was going to school in 2000-2002. I had actually considered selling all my 80's/'90's figures and just going with A.R.A.H.C. for the "new" figures around 2001.
It must have been by the end of 2012, possibly November 2012, that I sold the Headquarters here along with a drastic amount of my collection, in preparation for taking the next step towards real home ownership in January of 2013. That was a big step for me.
As of 2025, the entirety of that house was lost to a spouse who never paid for any of it. In fact, she didn't pay her half of the rent since her Dad cut her off in 2003. Of course I was always made to feel like the lesser person over 22 years. Not all abuse looks like what you think abuse is.
So here we are in 2025, I suppose not too far away from the Thanksgiving holiday, where we all put our social media thanks and praises up. I should do that now for you, thank you for reading, passing through, or just looking at my old HQ picture.
Going forward it's all gone, slowly allowed myself to disappear alongside a person who was slowly stealing away everything I was. Or could have been.
But I tell you, I think having G.I.Joe, being able to have little moments of setting stuff up on a shelf in my own little space in my own little corner over my entire lifetime kept me going. Something to look forward to, something to have fun with, something to create. I didn't have it all, by any means, but I still had a lot. Having the online communities, the old forums, being able to go to a G.I.Joe convention, you know, as much as I feel like I have disappeared, all of that meant a lot.