Come Back to Me!

My parents campaigned for George McGovern in 1972 (for those who don't know who McGovern is, he was the Democratic presidential candidate against Richard Nixon in his re-election campaign; Nixon won by a landslide).  When they were going through their house before selling it, they came across a box full of campaign stuff - posters, buttons, etc - and I took a "McGovern '72" pin and stuck it on my purse.

I lost it countless times.  Walking to my car, leaving the apartment...I'd look down and it'd be gone.  And I'd be gutted.  And then I'd find it.  On the driveway, under the kitchen table, once it was hiding under the driver's seat of my car...

About six weeks ago, though, when I looked down and saw it was gone yet again, I didn't feel good about its reemergence.  And not just because I'd dropped my "Let's all get out and vote!" pin from the Eisenhower campaign at the Slider Inn a week or so before and lost it for good (thus leading me to believe luck was not with me and my political buttons right now).  But because I noticed it was gone after a long series of errands in which I'd hit up about six different stores.  Worse yet, I remembered thinking I heard something drop while I was standing at the check-out at Dollar General but, not seeing anything when I looked at the ground, I had walked off...

Today, I was pulling out a plastic bag to put some garbage in when I felt something in the bottom.  I shook out the bag, saw it was from Dollar General, and reached in...

Yup.  There was my button. :)

Six weeks is the longest we've ever been apart, but obviously it loves me too much to really leave me.  In hindsight, I can't believe I ever doubted it would come back to me.

(Neither could my mom, who had heard enough I-found-the-button-again! stories to vocally doubt my assertion that it was really lost this time.  And she was right.)