14 August 2010

We were in the Christmas Tree Shops the other day stocking up on some Voortman cookies (this seems to be the only place that carries the brand for our favorite windmill cookies) and not 10 feet into the store, the rear cart wheel bumped into something. I looked down to see a small black pouch that looked like a change purse. Didn't look in it, but it turned out to be a minimalist purse. At check-out a few minutes later, the cashier next to us said he was waiting for a lady who forgot her wallet in her car. Well, what 're the odds? As she walked back in the store I directed her over to the service desk where we'd left it. The woman started thanking us profusely and said that her heart was still beating out of control.

I've been in the same boat. A pair of green khakis I wore back at the U had a back pocket that things slipped out of easily enough.... One day after leaving the campus library, come to find out that the usual bump in the seat wasn't there. Panic. Looked around me on the bus. Tried to backtrack, which included a long walk between buildings. Finally got back to the library to one of my usual seats and there it was, untouched. (I did change my PIN number on bank cards, etc. that day just to be safe.)

Still remember that wallet --- very worn brown leather bi-fold featuring a faint hunting dog stamp pattern, with black stitch lacing along the perimeters. It finally fell apart about a year after I graduated. It was old when I started using it after finding it in a drawer as a teen and I got about ten years out of it. Its replacement still doesn't have 1 percent the character that old wallet had.