Found, And Lost, And Found Again
I am sorting through boxes pulled out of storage. From one I retrieved a Japanese school book my father found in the caves of Okinawa after that battle, two small wooden chests containing the ashes of two of my cats, along with Twospeed's collar and a little bobble-head orange tiger that my autistic students bought me once while we were out on a trip that represented my other cat at that time, Goopy. This bobble-head Goopy became a small totem in my classroom and I used it as a sure fire way to calm down tantruming students. They loved my daily stories about Goopy, and this was Goopy to them, and they knew I loved Goopy, so they couldn't hurt Goopy. Therefore I put Goopy on top of the tray into which they'd have to put their assignments. All my students had to pick him up and not once in all those years did anyone hurt Goopy. They civilized themselves and handled him gently. I've placed those items on one shelf top, along with a candle holder and my film slate.
That same box also contained a little statue of a begging man I bought in Krakow, Poland, a whale decoration for my wall I bought at a garage sale somewhere near Seattle, and a little placard my mother gave me when I disappointed her as a teenager and went my own way containing Thoreau's famous "different drummer" quote.
And to update on my overall search:
1. I found my phone charger with the DVD player, and even charged my phone.
2. I HAVE NOT FOUND the little pegs that go into my bookshelves to hold up the actual shelves, so my books remain in their boxes, chomping at the bit to be released back onto shelves, into circulation, and for me to fondle their pages and ogle their words once again.
3. I hit the CD jackpot. I forgot that two years ago, just before I put all my stuff into storage, a friend of mine gave me all his CDs after converting them to mp3 format. He has great taste in music. I filled up my CD shelf with CDS, 90% of which I haven't listened to before, from Monk, Miles, Coltrane, and The Duke to classical, to The Beatles' White Album and music from all over the world. I elected to listen first to a Cat Stevens album, then I switched over to some Leonard Cohen, and now it's Joe Cocker's Greatest Hits.
4. I found the book I was reading (Leon Uris' The Haj) and set it beside my makeshift bed.
5. Some medication I'm supposed to be taking IS STILL MISSING. I'LL LIVE, BUT STILL!?!
6. Any kitty toys--FOUND SOME.
7. The bag I use to bring my lunch to work is just a stupid plastic bag. What do I care?
I found an item I framed about 19 years ago: An old World War I era piece of sheet music containing a drawing of an old woman looking at a framed photo of her son, the song's title being, "If I Had A Son For Each Star In Old Glory, Uncle Sam I'd Give Them All To You," written by Monte Austin; and I found a German bayonet that someone gave me over 25 years ago, probably from World War I. Missing from this box is a small, glass desk top frame containing a picture of my Grandfather in France in 1918, around the time he was gassed with his company with mustard gas, giving him a severe temper the rest of his life.
But there was a little wooden monkey head with a wooden pipe sticking out of it, another memento from my teaching years, and a heart shaped metal container with a small selection of buttons I wore in my youth:
A. Brown `92
B. Fleetwood Mac with the famous little penguin and the WB logo
C. A "BGLAM" button from my University of Washington days. BGLAM was "Bisexual Gay and Lesbian Awareness Mondays, don't you know, and the phrase, "Straight But Not Narrow" is emblazoned across this particular one. (You could choose your orientation to display, and we didn't want to leave the nice, supportive straight people out. However, we obviously did leave Transgendered folk out. Oops.)
D. A simple pink triangle.
E. A green "No Grapes" button
F. George Jenson
G. Jane, his wife
H. The Clash Sandinista!
I. I Read Banned Books (My favorite question from swarmy folk who figured they'd caught me: "Which ones?" I had a list, but I usually just said, "The Bible," and walked off.)
J. A road sign containing the letter "S" with an arrow coming out of the top end of the swirl, an early to mid 80s Safe Sex Awareness button
K. A tasteful pinkish-purple "Queer" button, also with a pink triangle on it
L. One of my absolute favorites, containing a pair of comingling pink flamingos and the words "YP Milwaukee," one of my earliest gay bar haunts from several thousand years back.
M. Also: A marble, an Indian head nickel with the year rubbed off, a coin from Victoria BC, City of Gardens, and a Canadian quarter.
That same box also contained a little statue of a begging man I bought in Krakow, Poland, a whale decoration for my wall I bought at a garage sale somewhere near Seattle, and a little placard my mother gave me when I disappointed her as a teenager and went my own way containing Thoreau's famous "different drummer" quote.
And to update on my overall search:
1. I found my phone charger with the DVD player, and even charged my phone.
2. I HAVE NOT FOUND the little pegs that go into my bookshelves to hold up the actual shelves, so my books remain in their boxes, chomping at the bit to be released back onto shelves, into circulation, and for me to fondle their pages and ogle their words once again.
3. I hit the CD jackpot. I forgot that two years ago, just before I put all my stuff into storage, a friend of mine gave me all his CDs after converting them to mp3 format. He has great taste in music. I filled up my CD shelf with CDS, 90% of which I haven't listened to before, from Monk, Miles, Coltrane, and The Duke to classical, to The Beatles' White Album and music from all over the world. I elected to listen first to a Cat Stevens album, then I switched over to some Leonard Cohen, and now it's Joe Cocker's Greatest Hits.
4. I found the book I was reading (Leon Uris' The Haj) and set it beside my makeshift bed.
5. Some medication I'm supposed to be taking IS STILL MISSING. I'LL LIVE, BUT STILL!?!
6. Any kitty toys--FOUND SOME.
7. The bag I use to bring my lunch to work is just a stupid plastic bag. What do I care?
I found an item I framed about 19 years ago: An old World War I era piece of sheet music containing a drawing of an old woman looking at a framed photo of her son, the song's title being, "If I Had A Son For Each Star In Old Glory, Uncle Sam I'd Give Them All To You," written by Monte Austin; and I found a German bayonet that someone gave me over 25 years ago, probably from World War I. Missing from this box is a small, glass desk top frame containing a picture of my Grandfather in France in 1918, around the time he was gassed with his company with mustard gas, giving him a severe temper the rest of his life.
But there was a little wooden monkey head with a wooden pipe sticking out of it, another memento from my teaching years, and a heart shaped metal container with a small selection of buttons I wore in my youth:
A. Brown `92
B. Fleetwood Mac with the famous little penguin and the WB logo
C. A "BGLAM" button from my University of Washington days. BGLAM was "Bisexual Gay and Lesbian Awareness Mondays, don't you know, and the phrase, "Straight But Not Narrow" is emblazoned across this particular one. (You could choose your orientation to display, and we didn't want to leave the nice, supportive straight people out. However, we obviously did leave Transgendered folk out. Oops.)
D. A simple pink triangle.
E. A green "No Grapes" button
F. George Jenson
G. Jane, his wife
H. The Clash Sandinista!
I. I Read Banned Books (My favorite question from swarmy folk who figured they'd caught me: "Which ones?" I had a list, but I usually just said, "The Bible," and walked off.)
J. A road sign containing the letter "S" with an arrow coming out of the top end of the swirl, an early to mid 80s Safe Sex Awareness button
K. A tasteful pinkish-purple "Queer" button, also with a pink triangle on it
L. One of my absolute favorites, containing a pair of comingling pink flamingos and the words "YP Milwaukee," one of my earliest gay bar haunts from several thousand years back.
M. Also: A marble, an Indian head nickel with the year rubbed off, a coin from Victoria BC, City of Gardens, and a Canadian quarter.