Sunday, November 30, 2008
Old Umbrella
My umbrella may be approaching a record for longevity, if such records were kept. It's an ordinary, small Totes, has a flower design on black so I suppose it's a woman's umbrella, if not especially colorful. I don't recall exactly when I got it, but I know where & how. The umbrella was abandoned in the umbrella basket at the music studio where I taught piano. It stayed there unclaimed & one rainy day I appropriated it. That was no later than 1990. One end of the carry loop popped out last year, I simply tied that end to the umbrella. The fabric is attached to all the spokes. It's a perfectly good umbrella. The wind has blown it inside out a few times with no damage. Folded it's a foot long & currently retails for about $15. If they're as well-made now, I recommend skipping the $5 crap the street vendors sell on wet days & investing in a Totes even if you already have one you forgot at home .
Something even older just broke; the leather thingie on my key ring. Finally wore out. It was just the right size piece of leather for holding & jangling keys. I don't know how long it's been on my key ring. I can't remember my keys without it. But I also remember where it came from. It had a skull & cross bones & "Jolly Roger Bar" engraved on it, & a young women I met in California in the summer of 1976 gave it to me for some reason. It went into my sock drawer, as most thingies do, & at some point much later I needed a new key ring thingie & fished it out. A few weeks ago I was given a little Hawaiian "Ku" god key ring thingie, & it is very cool, but I can tell it wouldn't last long with my keys, & deserves better; perhaps a place on top of the red toy piano on the shelf, near the three tiny lighthouses & the Asbury Park Christmas ornament.
Meanwhile, my reliable trifold Eagle Creek travel wallet has become very dirty. It's the best wallet I ever owned, despite being nylon or something & having velcro. It's been mocked by a few people with leather wallet hangups, including a woman who said she would never sleep with a man with a velcro wallet. Sobeit. If you love leather that much, I can direct you to a specialty store in Greenwich Village. The wallet forces me to keep it somewhat organized & not let it grow fat with receipts, coupons, & other people's business cards. Eagle Creek no longer makes exactly this style wallet. If I can somehow send the wallet through the wash, & it gets cleaner, I won't want or need to replace it.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Something even older just broke; the leather thingie on my key ring. Finally wore out. It was just the right size piece of leather for holding & jangling keys. I don't know how long it's been on my key ring. I can't remember my keys without it. But I also remember where it came from. It had a skull & cross bones & "Jolly Roger Bar" engraved on it, & a young women I met in California in the summer of 1976 gave it to me for some reason. It went into my sock drawer, as most thingies do, & at some point much later I needed a new key ring thingie & fished it out. A few weeks ago I was given a little Hawaiian "Ku" god key ring thingie, & it is very cool, but I can tell it wouldn't last long with my keys, & deserves better; perhaps a place on top of the red toy piano on the shelf, near the three tiny lighthouses & the Asbury Park Christmas ornament.
Meanwhile, my reliable trifold Eagle Creek travel wallet has become very dirty. It's the best wallet I ever owned, despite being nylon or something & having velcro. It's been mocked by a few people with leather wallet hangups, including a woman who said she would never sleep with a man with a velcro wallet. Sobeit. If you love leather that much, I can direct you to a specialty store in Greenwich Village. The wallet forces me to keep it somewhat organized & not let it grow fat with receipts, coupons, & other people's business cards. Eagle Creek no longer makes exactly this style wallet. If I can somehow send the wallet through the wash, & it gets cleaner, I won't want or need to replace it.
Labels: home furnishings
