Update and Text Messages

I am a major "deleter" of emails and text messages. It is clutter to me. If I need something saved, i'll file it or put it in notes, etc. Overnight, I did the macOS Monterey 12.1 update. Well, today, old deleted text messages all the way back to 2017, so far, have flooded in! These were all deleted and I figured gone forever! Now I have a zillion text messages on my laptop and as far as I can tell, so far, they have to be deleted one by one! Yesterday, I had two current text messages...today, I have tons! What the heck happened and is there any way to just delete them all at one time? And does anyone know "why" this happened. Seems every time I do an update on my phone, iPad or laptop, something goes wonky!