Little Souvenirs

When my mother was still alive she and I decided to take a trip to Yellowstone Park. If you have never been there, I highly recommend it. What a fascinating place to visit.

We saw lots of buffalo and elk. When we came around one corner we found ourselves face to face with a whole herd of them. The herd started in a meadow on one side of the road, and extended all the way across the road and into the meadow on the other side of the road. These magnificent animals do not care whether you ever get on down the road or not. They are in no hurry.  We found ourselves surrounded by bulls, cows and calves on each side and in front of the car. It was a little scary since they are extremely hot tempered.

There are pools all over the park that are bright pink, yellow or green. This is caused by algae growing in the water.

The geysers are amazing. Old Faithful used to go off every hour, but now it is every hour and a half.

While there, I was looking for souvenirs for the girls in the office where I worked. Everything I found was too expensive to buy a whole bunch of them. Finally on the last day, when I was just about to give up, there they were. Cute little thimbles with a picture of a geyser, and it said “Yellowstone” on them. They were perfect, and they only cost about $1.50. I could afford to buy one for every person on my list. Hurray, the search was over.

The next day when mom and I were about half way home, I got to thinking about the thimbles. All of a sudden they seemed so small. I realized that the girls would think I had been really stingy, getting them such a tiny souvenir. My heart sank. Why hadn’t I gotten them something bigger and more impressive? It was too late; I couldn’t do anything about it now.

On Monday, when I went back to work I had the thimbles with me. I swallowed my pride and walked around the office, putting a thimble on each girl’s desk. As I waited for the disappointed looks and comments, suddenly I was hearing squeals of delight. Everyone was talking about how cute they were, and how much they loved them. In a few minutes, what I thought had been a big mistake had turned into a big hit.

About two months later, one of the girls in the office went on a trip to Seattle, Washington. On Monday, when she came back to work, we all walked in to find a bright yellow thimble with the word Seattle on it sitting on each of our desks. When I saw the thimbles I realized that we had started a tradition.

Thimbles, as it turns out, make great souvenirs. They don’t cost much and they are small so you can get a little display case or shelf and put lots of them on it. When you start getting a collection of them, suddenly everybody wants to bring you one.

I now have beautiful or cute thimbles from Yellowstone, Seattle, Florida, Disneyland, Universal Studios, London, Paris, Edinburgh Scotland, Wales, Jamaica, Hawaii, Colorado, New Mexico, Panama, Columbia, and many other places.

I also started a collection of unique thimbles that I have found on Ebay. They each have to be very different and unusual. One of them even has moving parts. Everyone who sees them falls in love with them. I probably have at least 100 of them. And yet, they still take up a very small space. To me, they are the perfect thing to collect.

So, when you go someplace and you want to bring something back for the people you love, remember that it isn’t how much you spend on them or how big it is. Your friends and family just love to know that you thought of them. Besides, if you keep it small and inexpensive, you can bring them something from every interesting place you go.

Whatever souvenirs you bring home, just make it something you love. Have fun.