Do you ever lose track of one of your prized possessions for a few years? I do.
When we moved to Seattle in 1965, I lost track of three things (that I knew of). Two were of no importance - a lint brush (for brushing off clothing - remember those?) and something else of equal triviality. The third item, however, was my membership pin for Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honorary society. The three items showed up about 18 months later when, having just moved back to Kansas, I checked to assure that I had removed everything from the pockets of my luggage. Hmmf! I had failed to make that check when we moved to Seattle!
Unfortunately, I put the Sigma Pi Sigma pin onto a charm bracelet, using colorless nail polish to glue the catch in the "locked" position. You guessed it. I lost the pin, again! The second time seems to have been permanent, 43 years having passed without my having seen the pin again.
In 2006, I realized that I had lost my expired passport (procrastination prevailed in renewing it.) That passport has not yet surfaced. In my bones, I know it is still around here, someplace!
Last year, when I was packing emergency equipment into my trunk, I could not find my jump boots. (I always carry stuff during winter months, including a hooded down-filled parka, fur-lined leather gloves, a cashmere neck scarf, high-top boots & socks, and a small scoop shovel.) After tearing the house and garage apart looking for those jump boots, I was distraught!
My jump boots were purchased at an Army/Navy surplus store in the late 1970s as parachute jumping wear. I loved them. (I told my husband that I want to be buried in them! Well...that will be hard since I am to be cremated, but it's the thought that counts.) They are the only pair of footwear that I've owned that have never, ever hurt my feet - not for an instant!
When I was through parachuting (I made only four jumps - it does cost money, and I preferred to spend what little money I had at the time on another hobby, flying), I had the jump boots' slick soles replaced with Vibram waffle soles, and they became my preferred footwear for anytime I could reasonably excuse showing up in jump boots. They were usually polished to a luster, and I had no qualms about showing up for work (or even meetings with the Air Force) in business-type wool pants, and jump boots! (It gave Bogie and Dudette an excuse to tell everyone that, indeed, their mother wore/wears Army boots!)
I was frantic, trying to find my jump boots. I convinced myself that, much as I loved those jump boots, I had given them away. (I am prone to giving things away on the spur-of-the-moment and then forgetting about having done so!) Bogie said that I had not sent them to her. Well...eventually...I gave up hope of finding them even though I told myself that they would turn up somewhere. It didn't seem possible that they were still around.
It was possible. Today, in a corner of the closet in my den, I found a tote bag. My mother had received the tote bag as a premium on a cosmetics purchase, and had passed it along to me. When I lifted it, the bag seemed heavy. I was puzzled as to what I had stowed in it.
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