At the risk of outing myself as a complete slob, I recently unearthed my daughter’s decade-old “Little Mermaid” backpack while cleaning a closet. Serendipity struck in the form of a backpack collection drive that my friend Karen Benke was having to send backpacks to children in Colima, Mexico, and off the Little Mermaid pack went.
The body of the backpack had long ago been emptied, but the small front pocket held a surprise collection. Dumping it on the kitchen counter transported me back more than a decade — to a time of baby barrettes, film cameras, and our delightfully worn membership card to the Bay Area Discovery Museum. I was reminded that every purse and backpack from that period contained crayons and crayon markings. I remembered Anna being entranced by a magician’s tricks and adding her writing to his card. I remembered exploring San Francisco Bay on a slow afternoon that probably included pretending to be a captain atop the Discovery Museum’s dry-land boat.
Modern-day Anna was amused that the Mermaid backpack would have within it a guide to the seashore.
What treasures have you unearthed lately?
Photo by Susan Sachs Lipman
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