As a kid I always had a fascination with the junk drawer in the kitchen. Every house has one, a drawer containing the detritus of a family’s life. Ours contained a snakebite kit and French cuff links, leaking batteries and shoelaces, among other items. I’d pull the drawer out and sift through the collected family trash for hours. Where did that rattlesnake rattle come from…?

My junk drawer at my desk contains the accumulations of at least 30 years—an archeology of moods, fads, interests and confusions, the contents of which still fascinates me today.
1. My passport: moustache, glasses and curly hair hanging down past my shoulders … issue date 1989.
2. Four rubber stamps. Two for my old bookstore, The Printer’s Mark.
One seldom used “Paid” ink stamp and a WSA stamp from a left-wing labor group when I served as the national treasurer for a couple of years.
3. Three decks of playing cards. The first has the Confederate battle flag emblazoned on the cover. The second has George Jones smiling out on each card. The third has artificially enhanced women gracing each suit. I can’t say what that says about me except there they are in the back of the drawer.
4. Pocket Guides to the identification of first editions and points of issue.
5. The quotable Churchill: “He is a sheep in sheep’s clothing.”
6. A notebook of scribbled aphorisms: “The siren call of thinking you have something to say.” Hmm?
7. A weather radio, lozenges, three pairs of sunglasses and my old Buck knife.
8. Photos of my nephew Gavin’s birthday party.
9. A tin of McBaren’s tobacco, a Peterson pipe, a tamper, a cigar case, a full tin of Panther cigars, a rolling machine and something called a one-hitter.
10. Judas Priest, Scorpions and Iron Maiden concert pins.
11. Large, loose horse teeth.
12. Art gum and pencils.
13. A compass.
14. My original bookplate, which Cindy designed for a long ago Christmas present.
15. The business card Cindy used for her Border collie training business.
16. Goose leg bands and a duck call.
17. A telescope sighting scope and extra lenses.
18. A pewter pipe tamper designed by Ben Franklin with a somewhat naughty theme.
19. A Minnie ball.
20. Leather buttons to an old overcoat long devoured by generations of East Tennessee moths.
21. Numerous worry stones, nails, combs, and pens and a lighter.
22. And, of course, leaking batteries and the same snakebite kit.