Time Capsule

When I was younger, I always thought it would be fun to bury a box full of mementos -- photographs, trinkets, letters, whatever -- and then dig it up several years later and spend a day surrounded by nostalgic memories. It all seemed very romantic. Anyway, I never did it. (One major reason being that, unlike in the movies, there were no rolling fields near me where I could bury said treasure box without worrying that some condominiums were going to be built on top of it within a couple years!) But, last week, I unexpectedly had a time capsule thrown into my arms. Actually, there were four. And it was my apartment they were thrown into.

The story goes something like this: when I graduated from college four and a half years ago, I had to pack up my life. I gave away a lot of things, threw away some, shipped several boxes home and took 4 suitcases on the plane with me (yes, I paid a fortune in excess baggage). And then there were the four boxes I packed and left with family friends in Boston.

Cut to 4.5 years later (last week) and the boxes arrive by UPS at my little apartment. I circled them for quite a while, trying to remember what I could have possibly put in there that I didn't miss at all for nearly 5 years. Then, I finally opened them.

Random sampling of the contents:
-large stuffed Tweety Bird
-music box that plays the Pink Panther theme
-Tiffany address book with silver pen
-Ferragamo black pumps
-wrapping paper with "Gift from Rhea" printed on it
-a bag full of stationary
-Mont Blanc business case
-leopard print fur jacket
-photographs from when I was disturbingly thin, photographs from home, photographs from Hong Kong...
...and a bunch of other "stuff."

The great thing about it all was that I didn't remember that I'd packed any of it, barely remembered that I owned any of it, but the minute I saw each thing, I knew how I'd come by it. What was baffling (and also interesting) was pondering over why I'd shipped some really random stuff several thousand miles so that I'd have access to it almost immediately while some of these other things got packed away for several years.. For instance, I took a lot of photos home with me. Yet, I left about 12 albums in one of the stored boxes. Why?? I took back shoes I'd bought at Marks & Sparks. Yet, I left a pair of FERRAGAMOS in a box!! Seriously, why??

Okay, so the experience wasn't quite the romantic scenario I had pictured. I didn't have my treasure box, dug up from some field under some tree after 20 years. But, hey, I live in an urban jungle in the 21st century. Chances are that time capsules will arrive via UPS from someone's basement where they were unearthed during a bout of spring cleaning. But the surprise is still fun. And the nostalgia's still strong.