You know those zany ads that
ask “What’s in your wallet?” What I want to know is “What’s
in your treasure box?” You do have a treasure box, don’t you?
Of course you do. Is it an old cigar box, a cookie tin, or an old hat box? Is
it a special box that someone made for you? Why do we save the things we do
like ticket stubs and dried corsages, or matchbook covers? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder? “One never knows, do one?”
Both my husband and I have treasure
boxes of our own. My husband’s, an elegant brass box with the Tokugawa crest on
the lid, contains, among other things, a Swan Vesta match box filled with
stones he polished, a Cattaraugus pocket knife given to him by a dear friend,
his dog tags, a blue-ribboned Boy Scout medal, a few hand-forged cut nails, a
Kennedy half dollar, and an ancient pack of Gillette Blue Blades. “Do you have
plenty?” No, there are only two blades left from the pack of five.
Mine, a wooden box topped with a
cross stitched piece done by my daughter-in-law, holds several different
whistles, including one from Oscar Mayer Wieners, a sandalwood fan, a
boot-shape piece of rock from Les Baux-de-Provence, a red, white, and blue
ribbon rosette given to me in Oslo to wear to celebrate Norwegian Independence
Day one May, and a palm-size, bird-shape pillow made of green felt. This was my
oldest granddaughter’s first sewing project.
Many parents keep boxes of their
children’s things: hospital I.D. bracelets, baby booties, a tress from a
child’s first haircut, first drawings, report cards. These things mean a lot to
a parent, but little, until later years, to a child. Treasure boxes are a great
gift for children aged about four or older. Children love little drawers and
compartments. A single-layer tackle box is a great starter box for a kid. The
partitions can be moved around to suit their whims, and the boxes are
practically indestructible. They can fill the little spaces with all sorts of
utterly useless things that they just have to keep.
Children take great pleasure in
showing off their treasures to any interested grownup, and they like to have
grownups return the favor. We keep some neat stuff in what we call the Nature
Box. It too is a tackle box, full of shells, rocks, nuts and seeds, pretty
feathers, stones, found pottery shards, an arrowhead or two, shed snake skins,
plus a few dried insects like a big cicada and some little, emerald-green
flies. These never cease to fascinate our younger grandchildren.
I get a bit nostalgic when think
about the recording Loretta Young made of the story of The Littlest
Angel. Now, along with many an old radio show, it can be found online. The
end to the charming tale of the Littlest Angel is that his gift, a humble
treasure box, containing a butterfly with golden wings, a sky blue bird’s egg,
two white stones, and his beloved dog’s collar, became the shining star of
Bethlehem.
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