Thirty-three paper clips
I had a sudden urge to go upstairs and open the footlocker in one of the guest rooms. It is full of memories from high school (oh, the photos that I’ll never share!) and I thought that I’d try to find an example of how tragically dreadful my writing was way back when.
Anyhow, the writing was so bad that I couldn’t bring myself to share it here. (Which really says a lot, considering what I do share.) But I did enjoy the little trip down memory lane… again, some memories I just can’t bring myself to share.
But I also found a small white box tied with a brown ribbon. I didn’t recall what was in it, so I untied it and removed the lid. There I found a note, dated June 1989, written on half a dollar bill that read:
Don’t forget this memory. It’s part of our future.
The only other thing in the box was a large safety pin that secured 33 coloured, vinyl-coated paper clips: One blue; one purple; two red; three black; three green; six white; six pink; and 11 yellow.
But here’s the thing: I know who it’s from, but I don’t know why. I have no memory of this – but am quite certain that it was meant for me, based on who signed the note.
Is there a clue in the fact that it’s a bunch of paper clips? In the number of paper clips? In the colour assortment of paper clips? Or is it simply some random bit of nothingness that doesn’t mean a thing today, and probably didn’t mean a thing more than 20 years ago when the note was written?
This is why we shouldn’t keep crap like that. Some future generation may find it and think that it holds vital clues to the survival of civilization as we know it. What a wild goose chase that would be…
When I read this, my first thought was of the “friendship pins” girls used to exchange at school — safety pins threaded with coloured beads. Maybe this was some kind of variation on that?
I don’t know about that. It was from a boy (just friends) who wouldn’t really do something like that. It must be some little inside joke or some obscurely geeky thing… But also in the footlocker was a little bag filled with several friendship bracelets and the ‘pin’ pins (wrestling thing) from an old friend. And a little ‘trinket’ another friend made in woodshop for me…