Scribbles & Towels

A few years ago I was looking through my mother’s purse for something (don’t worry, I had her permission – ha!) and I pulled out a little memo pad that I recognized from my childhood. She was harboring the same note pad that I had drawn on many, many times as kid, while bored on some mundane errand like standing in the line at the DMV. Let’s just say it saved both of our sanity many a time.

As I flipped through it, I stared at its yellowed and bent pages like some sort of time capsule. There they were right before me, my own childish scribbles, looking like a foreign language. Besides being interested in my artistic legacy (HA!), I was also curious as to why she had kept the same note pad for SO long.

When I asked her why I believe she said something to the effect of, “Because there are still some blank sides where I can write my notes.” What notes? Yeah, she had written a few addresses and phone numbers in there but as she winked at me I figured that wasn’t the only reason she kept that little collection of papers and drawings.

There were memories on that paper for both of us and after many new purses that paper pad always made the transfer into her latest handbag.

So now I plan to put a little memo pad (or 2) in my purse so that my boys can scribble while we are out and about. It beats the noise of a Leapster and no doubt it will create many a memory.

In the same vein, I realized the other day that I was also hanging on to something for the sake of the memories. I have kept a basket of small hand towels in my bathroom since Tim and I moved into our town home a couple of years after we were married. I remember when Tim’s Grandparents first came to visit us there and his Grandmother gave me a compliment on my decorating and especially on the bathroom.

For some reason that memory has always stuck with me and I associated it with that basket of towels. It even made the move to our house and took up residence on the edge of our tub. Every time I looked at it I thought of her and how good she made me feel that day about our little home.

This same basket remained on the edge of our master bathtub until just the other day when Little G knocked it into the tub full of bath water. It was then that I realized we had never used even one of those towels after alsmost nine years and they were still like new. I also came to the realization that they were no longer “safe” on the edge of the tub, where the boys usually bathe, and decided to put them in the wash (and thus into the towel circulation for the first time!). I knew in my heart that it really had no purpose there on the edge of the tub, except that every time I saw it there, I thought of that day and the lovely, heart-warming memory that she had gifted me with.

I have yet to figure out how to repurpose the now empty basket but I must admit, I am quite excited about my “new” towels!

So tell me, what do you see in your house every day, or in your purse for that matter, that conjures up good memories? Just curious…