Things that stay with you

Welcome to the new year ... how do you like living here in the future? There has been a theme to many of the conversations and email lately - everyone I know seems baffled by the question "How did it get to be 2010 already!" Connecting with old friends on the social networking sites is apt to bring this on, since a high school buddy can say things like "40th High School Reunion" or "my grand-daughter" or even (shudder) "my great-grand-daughter". How did THAT happen??

A related question comes to mind - where did all that past I am dragging around come from? Some of the dragging is metaphorical, but some is embodied in real stuff.

Tonight I broke one of the last of the excellent 7" soup bowls that we got the semester I moved from the dorm to the apartment. I have been attached to that bowl for almost as long as I have known my husband! Who would have dreamed that we would still be using the 1975 bargain bowls from Spags, the 1975 Pierced Olaf cutlery from the bank for opening accounts, or my Junior High era pencil sharpener!

I suppose it would not have been hard to predict that I would still have the saddle I got in 1964 or the horse painting from 1965. But the handmade angel we made in 1974, the year we were married but were too poor to buy ornaments? Who would have figured she would still have her glitter wings and tinfoil dress? The dirt cheap Olvera Street ornaments from 1975 still shine cheerfully.

A word to the young folks - get stuff you really like - it may be with you a long, long time!

And here is one last surprise to record for a much newer piece. In 1990 we visited a marvellous bakery in the shadow of Clifford's Tower in York England. We did in fact eat the bread frog, but the bread hedgehog was too cute and we were too full after all the other goodies, so we put him aside to eat the next day. I am happy to report that just as we have not eaten him, neither has anything else!