Tanner: Pockets - Don’t leave home without them
“What’s not to love about pockets?
Just as advertising agents Ogilvy & Mather created the slogan in 1975 for American Express cards, “Don’t leave home without it!” I say, “Don’t leave home without pockets.”
When was the last time you went shopping, busy putting grocery bags in your cart. The clerk hands you a $20 in change, you hurriedly stick it in your jacket pocket, get home and hang jacket on the hook behind the door. Then, next winter, you grab the jacket off the hook, put your hand in the pocket and “Whoopee” you’re $20 richer. Makes your day, right?
I just love pockets. All my clothes have pockets; shirts, slacks, skirts, sweaters, suits, jackets - you name it, it’s got pockets. Pockets really come in handy for a lot of things like loose change, car keys, grocery lists, chewing gum and peppermints in their wrappers, left over seed from planting the garden or extra pecans when gathering in the fall from under a tree, bobby pins, paper clips, lipsticks, nails and screws and of course that “MUST” have tissue necessary for a runny nose, a child’s tears, or your own cut finger.
One day when going for a walk with my grandchildren I removed a tissue from my pocket to use when grandson, Forrest, piped up and said. “Meema, you always have a tissue in your pocket don’t you?” To which I replied, “Yep, not just one, but two or more.” Tissues and pockets are definitely handy things to have when you have grandchildren who like to go exploring in the woods and ‘mud-bogging’ at the creek through the marsh grasses.
Chances are you never know what ‘prizes’ your pockets hold ‘til you dump your ‘till’ on the table when you return home; snails still alive and crawling, pieces of artifacts a high tide brought in and left in the mud, broken pieces of pottery from an old Indian mound when they were settled in our area over a hundred years ago and other mysterious finds.
My daddy ‘ALWAYS’ had something good in his pockets ranging from chinquapins in the fall, parched peanuts in the shell or an empty aspirin bottle cleaned and refilled with some of his home made cane syrup for a little ‘picker-upper’ energy fueling ‘twards the middle of the day.
Remember, “Don’t leave home without them: your pockets!”
Contributor Jean Tanner is a lifetime rural resident of the Bluffton area and can be reached at jstmeema@hargray.com.
This story was originally published March 28, 2016 at 6:45 AM with the headline "Tanner: Pockets - Don’t leave home without them."