Julie's Necklace

When the kids were little, they used to make me gifts at school. Actually, their teachers taught them how to do this, choosing "crafts" that a small child could make and then (oh, dare I admit what an unnatural mother I am?), inflict upon his/her poor, innocent mother. Once it was a Siamese cat made from a Michelob bottle circa 1977 with a light bulb as a head. Can you imagine a child coming home from school these days with the need for a beer bottle and a burned out light bulb? I seldom drink, so getting the bottle took an extra trip for me. I try to imagine what it would have been like for an alcoholic!

Once it was a necklace made from a chain of paper clips that were then covered in green paper. Julie remembers this as wrapping paper; I remember it as gum wrappers. Julie must be correct, because you would have to chew an awful lot of gum to have enough wrappers for an entire class.

At any rate, when it was jewelry, I would wear it out of the house in the morning, take it off and leave it in the car when I got to work, and put it back on when I got in the car to come home. Except for one day. One day when I had to address the board of the agency I was working for at the time. And wondered why they were all smiling at me the entire time I was talking. That is, until I went to the bathroom later and saw myself in the mirror. Wearing my paper clip necklace.