JOY ALONG THE WAY: LOOK IN KITCHEN DRAWER FOR LOST ITEMS

Everyone has a kitchen drawer that contains thrown-in oddments from Band-Aids, to a chisel, to a half-filled package of zinnia seeds, and maybe a neatly folded dish cloth and a hundred other things, counting all the nails and tacks. When I lose something that I know could possibly fit into such a kitchen drawer there is where I look first. At different times I have found my pearl beads, a right foot insole. Also toenail clippers, stapler, paper napkins, Three-in-one-Oil can, etc.

I am blessed with another such container of assortments. It is a three-legged stool designed to be a chair-side sewing stool. Atop the three legs is a round barrel-like holder about 10 inches deep with a wooden lid padded with a quilted top. Only the owner knows what is inside. During conversations with visitors I've seen the surprised looks on their faces should they see me lift the lid of this stool and take out a box of chocolates or a newspaper clipping relevant to what we had been discussing. A dozen cards, purse-size New Testament, several jelly beans may fall out as I reach for what I wanted.

From time to time during the year I have to clean out this "sewing" stool lest it get too full the lid won't stay on and miscellaneous things begin to fall out. How else to explain a little book on friendship, embroidery hoops, a scented coffee cup pad on the surrounding floor?

At the first of December such a cleaning out was attempted to make room for all the incoming Christmas messages, more interesting newspaper clippings and other things I just can't bear to throw away. At least for a while.

Here is an assortment of things that seem to remain year after year: Sixteen crochet hooks, a darning needle, a measuring tape, an old pair of scissors, a tangled ball of embroidery thread, a nearly finished lace doily and about two dozen buttons, all different. All of which is a reminder that the stool actually did start out to be a proper sewing stool. Sixteen crochet hooks?? Did I ever need that many sizes? There are about seven or eight well worn letters from people I don't know but who so eloquently expressed the pleasure I've given them from something I've written. I can never let them go. They are my ego stokers. There is a little lacy heart-shaped potpourri made for me by my granddaughter, Lauren. From time to time I soak the stuffing with my favorite perfume. Thus, each time I remove the lid from the stool a lovely fragrance escapes which puts me in an instant good humor.

This year that unfinished doily began to bother me. Why didn't I finish it? What was the interruption that has lasted for so many years? Years that have subtracted from the nimbleness of my fingers. I held the dainty little thing in my hands, wondering if I could match the thread, find the right hook, manipulate my fingers for the right tension. And where could the old pattern book be? The doily appeared to need two more rounds to get a proper finish. The crochet book wasn't in the kitchen drawer. It wasn't in the "sewing" stool. Could the pattern still be in my head, tucked in some little recess long neglected? It was the pineapple pattern, the age-old symbol of friendship. Let's see a slip stitch means you don't throw the crochet thread over the needle but slip the hook through the next stitch and draw the thread. Ch means make a chain stitch where you throw the thread over the hook and pull the thread through. Then there is sc, dc, tc, * and a variety of other shorthand instructions. By George, I believe I can do it! And that little piece of unfinished business will be completed!

REJOICE!

Jean Bell Mosley is an author and longtime resident of Cape Girardeau.