Desert Island Game

 ***not proofed, or edited or finished!***

My sister-in-law is one of my best friends. We have a lot in common but also we are very different. One thing we have in common is our love of lists/task/things to do, etc. We share ideas on our Notes app and comment back and forth.

Recently, Peggy proposed the Desert Island Game. We were to pick 10 things, sentimental things, that we could bring with us if we were to lived on a deserted island. There was a lot of back and forth about the rules, haha. Like does a group of similar things count as one or do you have to count each item. We finally decided that if the items were in the same category, they would count as one as long as the group of items didn’t exceed 10 items.

These are things that are precious to me for different reasons. Now that I’m looking at them, I see that they are mostly items associated with a family member that has since passed.

Here are mine:

The first item that would go in my desert island bag would be the Swiss Army knives that my dad gave me. Every since I was younger, maybe a teen, he would gift me one of the small, swiss army knives. They had the little scissors, knife, nail file, tweezer and pick. I guess I had been fascinated with Dad’s so he gave in and got me one of my own. Several have been lost over the years. I have the last two that he gave me. One is the traditional red one and one is has a cool blue and white pattern on it. I have one downstairs in my desk and one in the little teak wooden dish (also my dad’s) that I keep on my nightstand which also holds my chapstick. I use the knives for all sorts of things from cutting off tags on new clothing to filing my hang nail and even cutting my nails.

The next items I would bring with me are the 4 ceramic crocks that were in mom’s kitchen going back as far as I can remember. Each summer growing up we would go to Maine for a couple of weeks. We had certain places that we would stop at along the way. One of them was a pottery place. The man and woman were both clay artists and Mom loved their work. Each time we went Mom picked out another crock in the same blue color. Each one was a little bit different but you knew they belonged together. One was somewhat spherical in shape with a teak lid with a knob. One was a size down and was more straight up and down but had the same style lid. The next one down was the similar in shape to the second one but had a flat teak lid. The last one had was narrower towards the top and had a flat lid. They were all done in a very pretty blue. I’ll have to figure out how to describe the color. When I inherited the canisters a couple of years ago I was eager to have them in my kitchen. I cleaned the bodies up really well and cleaned and oiled the tops. Sugar, flour, rice and tea bags were added. Just like my mom had. I also had the metal scoop that she used in the sugar one and the sea shell that she used to scoop out the rice. Weird, I know, but it was what we did!

My next pick was Gulliver and Skipper. They are the epitome of my childhood. When I was in grade school, my dad took a sabbatical and we did some traveling. We went to England, Ireland, a brief visit to Scotland and then we spent two months on St. Thomas in a house of one of his colleagues. When we were in England, I picked out two small ceramic dogs from a gift shop. They are very similar to the ones that used to come in Red Rose tea (maybe they still do that?). But these have more defined and delicate features than the Red Rose ones. Gulliver is a puppy, a mutt, I guess, and he is sitting on his haunches and looking very sweet. Skipper is a retriever of some kind. He is standing up on all fours and he’s standing on a patch of grass. I played with these two for hours and hours. I had many other ceramic animals and plastic ones of all sizes, but Gulliver and Skipper were always the favorites and were always the head of the household. I had two story doll house that my dad and brother built for me that all my animals lived in. Gulliver was always in charge and was the oldest, and Skipper was second in charge. So many fun scenarios were created in this doll house where animals lived!

And then there is my comforter. It’s an alternative down comforter, light blue, twin size, that my mom bought me in my senior year of high school in preparation for college. I still have it and use it nightly. I even use it when it’s hot and muggy out, if just to hug or snuggle. It is kind of lumpy but I wash it and shake it out and try to get the lumps to even out. I actually just threw it in the wash today. These days I use a comforter cover so I can wash that more frequently and try to get the comforter to limp a long a little longer. I have been toying with the idea of asking Santa for a new one for Christmas but I don’t know if this is the year yet or not. What would I do with it if I get a new one? Throwing it in the trash seems inhumane. I know most people would think it’s gross using a 43 year old comforter but I’m very attached to it and it truly is a comforting comforter.