Discovered Treasure

My husband was cleaning out the end table last night when he came across an old leather American Indian pouch I had in high school. I opened it and discovered a wealth of treasures that I had saved, being a very sentimental person. These things inside brought back a flood of memories of people I knew. Among the items were receipts, napkins, movie ticket stubs, bottle caps and guitar picks. A Peanut M&M wrapper a special friend handed to me in the hallway one day in 11th grade. I finished the bag and saved the wrapper. A napkin with a poem on it that I wrote when I was sixteen and sitting in the Espresso Royale coffee shop in Dinkytown with my dad. A small piece of a drawing that April gave me with her signature on the back, followed by "As if I'm going to be famous." My dad and I went to see the movie "The Doors" when I was in tenth grade. It was a rainy Monday afternoon, and we were the only ones in the theater. It cost me $4.80. A bottle cap from my favorite drink when I was a teenager, Sour Cherry Sundance. God, I wish they still made that. My son Garrett was looking at all the things in wonder. There was a Fortune Telling fish in there that I bought in Minneapolis. April and I both got one. It's made of a clear red plastic, and when you place it in the palm of your hand, it curls up, and the way it curls up tells you all about yourself, whether you are passionate, in love, fickle, or cold. Garrett's fish curled up on both sides, which means he is passionate.

I was as excited as a child at Christmas to find that I still had these items. I also feel kind of silly that I keep such things. But they are reminders of good memories and the wonderful people I have been fortunate to have pass through my life. I put everything back in the pouch and put it safely away.