I am correcting my earlier blog after finding out I really am struggling with memory…silver induced, I’m assuming.  I remember watching a game show when I was younger called Let’s Make a Deal hosted by Monte Hall.   It goes way back to when I was ten years old and so much of it is foggy, as I found out.  My world was simple and innocent then and without price tags, and I was too young to logically guess between two items, nor did I really care.  But for me, the best part of the show was the very last few minutes.  Monte walked through the audience offering money to the  ladies with the fasted hands …no, not that type of lady, but those who were lucky enough to have crammed precisely the right items into their purses…and were able to find his requested item first and catch his attention.  50 dollars to the first person to show me a silver dollar…75 dollars for a needle and thread…Alright….how about 100 dollars to the first person who can show me a map!

It was thrilling for me to watch the ladies scramble through their purses in search of the winning item.  It’s funny now to think back at that memory.  I don’t think there were any men winning…frantically waving their hands…digging in their pockets.  To be fair, maybe they were helping…helping their wives to hurry, helping to shove their arms up in the air, or maybe…grabbing the items from them and helping to make some noise…yea, that was probably it… but they definitely didn’t have a bag of supplies…and they definitely still don’t.

The reason I started thinking about purses and what’s in them all began about a week ago at a youth group meeting.  A core member shared with a group of us about a recent misfortune she’d experienced while at a shopping mall.  While riding on an escalator, she heard the sound of a little something dropping onto the metal steps after pushing back her hair.  It didn’t take but a second to realize her diamond earring had just fallen…into the moving escalator steps.   Ugh!  She received help and was told the escalator was due for a thorough checkup and the earring would be looked for.  Anyway…and really, I do have a point…after we finished consoling our friend, the matriarch in our group…and I use this term lovingly because she’s got a few years on the rest of us but is still brave enough to work with teens…and be adored by them…and has more energy than the Energizer Bunny, decided to lighten the mood.  She whipped out a sandwich bag from her purse and waved it in their air…Anybody need a pearl earring?  And there in her bag were about six pairs of spare pearl earrings.  Why?  I don’t know, but we laughed until it hurt.  And isn’t that the question here?  What’s in your bag, and why?

We, as women, have inherited the role of emergency supply carrier.  Not that my dear Officer Buckle does not have our family prepared for disaster at home.  I mean we could live without electricity for heat and light for quite some time with his stash of firewood, batteries, tools and food.  But when we’re on the road, that’s my time to shine.  I might hear….do you have a band aide…a tissue…a checkbook…a highlighter…gum…old gum (ick)…marbles (what?)…a small pharmacy…lipstick…keys…more keys…even more keys (to what I don’t know), a rosary…ear plugs (you never know when the band’s going to start playing), my glasses (somewhere)…and last but not least…a kitchen knife (what?).  Yep, after Mass, a friend returned one of my knives that had accidentally gone home with her after a party.  I just recently found it in my purse.

Thinking back to my younger days on the subject of bags, I didn’t carry much.  Guess I wasn’t prepared for life until I had lived it.  As the years have progressed and my silver has grown…so has my bag.

I think some of us are known for what we carry in our bags.  Anyone who knows my mother-in-law has, at one time or another, been offered a piece of hard candy.  If you’ve got a tickle, it can be fixed.

Something stuck in your teeth?  My mother as a toothpick.

Dry hands?  My daughter has the nicest fragrant hand cream.

What’s in your bag?  Really…I mean something must make it weigh ten pounds!

I’d love to hear from you.  Share with us your favorite or most unusual item in your bag.  Comment on the blog below, leave a message on Facebook or Twitter.  What’s in your bag?