A couple of weeks ago we were dressing to go to a funeral and Gene had to dust off his suit coat from the depths of the closet as he was one of the pallbearers. He doesn’t wear his coat much anymore as Sunday attire has gotten more informal. I started emptying his pockets and discovered numerous treasures which truly showed how seldom he wears the suit and how seldom he empties his pockets.
There were the funeral bulletins for Uncle Milford Hertzler in February of 1988, Aunt Edna Hertzler in March of 1989, Uncle Arthur Hertzler in November of 1990 and Uncle Dewitt Heatwole in December 1993. There was the high school graduation program and napkin for our son Keith in 1994 and a map to the wedding reception on the Annabel Lee River Boat for my first cousin Cathy Reed and Brian Yoder. The directions were not dated. Cathy, when were you married? And finally there were two name cards, his and mine, for a banquet table in Kauai (one of the Hawaii Islands) when we had earned a trip with Purina in 1992.
I don’t normally keep any of the above papers but now suddenly they seem like treasures because they feel like antiques! Funeral bulletins were definitely the most popular item he saved, probably because that was when he wore his suit.
Pocket trash or pocket treasure?
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