Treasures

I’m wondering if the things we buy on vacation, as souvenirs, aren’t sometimes things we could get at home. If this is the case, we don’t buy them when we visit Alvero Street, Chinatown or any number of discount malls and swap meets because we consider them junk. The other things we don’t buy at home, we do without because we really don’t need. But we buy these things on vacation. We then bring them home and placed them on some shelf. People come to our house and say, “Oh, I saw these at….” It takes us only little effort to explain that it’s not one of those cheap things. You know they don’t believe us.

We buy a common household items emblazoned with the names of tourist destinations. We buy cultural pieces that we’re told someplace is famous for. We also buy high-end items that don’t cost any less than at home, but hell, we’re on vacation.

Most generally, we will need extra luggage to go home because of all our new treasures, so we’ll buy a new bag as well. Once we get home, we will honor and cherish these touchstones to memory. Next year they will be in our yard sale.