In 1983 my Grandpa handed me a plastic JC Penney shopping bag and told me to guard its contents with my life—don’t show it to anyone. He passed away not long after, rather suddenly in fact, which not only intensified his order of protection, but also made me the key master—Secrets from that time forth were and are always safe with me. For a while, I kept the package under my bed… Then it moved behind a wallboard in my closet… Then under other secret stuff in a drawer… The bag moved from hiding place to hiding place until finally winding up at the bottom of the great silver trunk that my Dad had brought home from a convention. I very rarely opened the bag to peek at the contents, and as years passed—lifelong momentos perfeitos were added to the trunk—thus preserving the JC Penney bag that much more. Then, I moved on… and away. Away from the trunk… I left it at my parents house many years ago in trust that everything in it would be safe, which it was — Hardly ever opened to the light of day… until it arrived at our house this past weekend.

I avoided it for years — the trunk of my life… or as my husband described it to our son, “Mom’s Trunk of Junk”… Stuff that I once thought I wanted to keep forever… All reminders of an obscenely happy childhood turned lunatic adolescence – spiraling into a cynical (but fun) college student and out into the world… But stuff, nonetheless—the Muppets Lunch Box, tap shoes, riding hat, tennis racket, Rolling Stone mag covers, sketch books, year books (which coincidentally, make excellent stepping stools), hats, penny banks, fifty cent coins, high school and college art projects, gas mask, mardi gras mask, mickey mouse autograph book, abacus, ancient pack of Marlboro Lights, Letters (actual real handwritten letters!), bottle caps, Police posters, mixed tapes, postcards, costume jewelry, matchbooks, long-forgotten-friend photos, scrapbooks…And at the bottom of it all—the JC Penney shopping bag. 

There it was. I inspected the bag — still the same. All the other stuff kept it nice and cozy and insulated… The contents—perfect and now here for me to share with all… The big secret… Did you know that in 1969 a few Americans actually blasted off and landed on the moon? Don’t believe me? Behold the long awaited evidence!