It was spitting snow today and pretty much December cold. It was so overcast it looked like dusk at about 3 PM. It is a few days from the solstice. I had errands. Since I kinda resent going out unless the temperature matches my age I don't go out too much. I'm 68. I do still like the winter but now more in cozy contemplation than actual physical contact. I worked outside, in the winter, for a long time. I had a friend who would say he had so many winters left until retirement. I liked that formulation. He got his 30 years in. I like that too. Good for him. I used to play in the winter when I could. Flexi-Flyers, snowmen, toboggans, snow forts.
I always wear long johns in the winter months. A little hot flash never hurt anyone but a little chill has killed millions of people. I wore my work boots, knit cap, a hooded sweatshirt and a nice ski jacket.
My small errands could have been run in the neighborhood but I decided to go to the other side of town and make an afternoon of it. I don't go out much in the winter so I try to force myself when I do. I even went to an old local bar. A little beer, a little bullshit. It was nice. It was then I realized I'd forgotten my gloves. Since my hands would be full on the way home that was a problem. My ensemb was incomplete and my hands would be cold.
I decided to go next door to the local dollar store (The modern 5 and 10) and buy a cheap pair of work gloves. It turned out the cheapest purchase was actually a set of two pair. Half the price of a better, single pair. I bought them. Now I owned 4 pair of work gloves. I had forgotten my gloves before. I'm retired. I'll never use them but for a couple bucks my hands would be warm for an hour or so which is all I needed.
I live in the City and I don't drive; haven't for 13 years. I make up dumb stories about that but the truth is, I just don't like it anymore. I don't have to do it so, I don't. I ride the trolley or the bus. I do like that. Some element of anticipation I guess. Some pleasure in the idea of arrival.
It's close to Christmas which is always nice in the city or anywhere I suppose. The stores are decorated. Even the tavern had the prettiest of porcelain houses and such in little beds of cotton snow. As I rode the bus across town I realized the best decorations I saw that day were a mother and four children returning from some shopping. Cute, good-natured kids. very well behaved.
As I approached my destination I dug my new gloves out of one of my bags. Two pairs stapled together. I separated them thinking about the storage container where they would join the other two pair I would never need or use. A thought struck me and instead of returning the one pair to my bag I left them on the seat. Maybe someone would need them for a reason no better than my own or even a better reason. A dollar twenty-five cent pair of flimsy gloves. There's a conceit, I thought to myself.
Who was likely to find them and what use could they really be? They'd probably be found and discarded by a bus company clean up person or turned into the lost and found or just ignored by someone who didn't need them but maybe, just maybe. They might be a holiday find for a pair of cold hands. They could be a find by someone who also had forgotten their gloves, another forgetful old man. Good for him.
Maybe the clean-up person or the fellow who had no use for them would have my thought and let them lie so they could move into an uncertain future, an informal lost and found where maybe, just maybe.
One thing is certain. None of those things would be possible from my storage bin or the back of my closet or anyone else's. That's true of so many things we can all do so easily. Maybe, as we get older, Creative Forgetfulness is a blessing we all can share.
