A Letter to Jampack Winter ‘99

Welcome to the weekly series: Love Letters to my Childhood

Dear Jampack Winter ‘99,

Okay, I’ll be honest, I thought about you for the first time in probably 15 years yesterday. I could barely even remember what demos you had. I actually tracked you down and own you now, so I’m gonna play you, if that’s cool.

I was 7 when we first met. I was a weird kid; I loved Burger King, Titanic, McDonald’s, Star Wars, and every horror movie I could sneak past my parents. My parents were divorced, by the way, which isn’t as sad as you think, I was very young and they did an amazing job of not acknowledging anything weird was happening.

But, you were at my mom’s house. So I spent a ton of time playing you on the PS1. Off the top of my head with no research, I remember you had Spyro 2, Coolboarders, Sled Storm, Toy Story 2, a hockey game and an NFL game, I think.

They were only demos, so I never got to play the full games, but that never mattered to me. I didn’t care, I just had fun playing whatever the developers allotted. I wish I could go back to that thinking, being grateful for having anything, never needing more than I had.

Hopefully when I play you later today, I don’t realize that you actually sucked. I don’t think I will. I’m a very nostalgic person and I live in the past because the future is scary. I actually know I’ll enjoy hanging out with you again, it’s been a long time. I’m sorry I upgraded and got all the new shit instead of keeping whatever bond we had.

I love you, and I’m back.

Love,

Hunter