Does She Remember? November 6, 2009

I found this today, and it made me think of you. Do you remember it?

So my Huckafriend and I had this tradition back in college. Any time either of us went on a trip (no matter how insignificant), the trip goer always bought a cheap, snappy trinket from whatever place she had visited. Most of the time there was a rule (her rule of course, because I would never have been against nicer things) that the item could not cost more than $2. This, of course, meant that the gifts were sometimes quite inventive.

I remember several of the trinkets I was given…the gem you see above was from a trip to Gulf Shores that I couldn’t go on. Then there was the neon yellow plastic change purse from somewhere exotic (actually I don’t remember where that one came from), a vinyl change purse with the Chicago skyline (that I can only assume came from Chicago). Really…and to think at the time I was glad I didn’t wind up with the nail clippers (of course at that time I still didn’t do my own nails, so the clippers would have been of no use to me).

The cool thing about these trinkets is that they were never about getting something…never about trying to impress…never about earning respect. The trinkets were simply a gesture of friendship…a little something to let the other person know you were thinking about them.

I think we’ll have to revive this tradition, because I really miss it. And I think there are some pretty cool things I could come up with from some of the places I pass through on the way to the Huckafriend’s house.

By the way, I only remember one of the trinkets I ever brought you from a trip, and it is the set of stolen chopsticks from the restaurant in San Francisco. I kinda feel bad about stealing the chopsticks, but I still have my set proudly displayed on my bookshelf at work, so I obviously don’t feel that badly about it.

I hope my Huckafriend enjoyed the stroll down memory lane.