Lost socks don’t bother me much. I buy both gym and trouser socks in bulk, so if one goes missing on a trip or in the dryer, I just put the other one aside until the time comes to unite it with another newly singleton sock. I don’t spend any time bemoaning the situation or even, to be honest, looking very hard for the missing one.
Missing earrings, however, are another story. I have earrings that date back twenty years or more. And it makes me very sad when one of a pair goes AWOL.
That’s happened to me twice in the past week, and I’m still mourning the loss. The first one was a silver hoop my sister Maureen passed down a few years ago. I’ve ended up with a fair number of clothes with silver buttons or detail, and I loved those hoops because they went with everything. And, without being inappropriate or gaudy, they pretty much said, “I’m a girl,” even if I wasn’t wearing makeup. That’s especially important to me now, since my stylist went a little nuts last week as well. Simply coincidence? You be the judge. It’s been cold in the DC area, and my guess is the earring was lost when I was putting on or taking off my coat or headgear. Sigh.
Then last Saturday, I was visiting with a friend in Baltimore when all of a sudden she said, “Did you know you’re missing an earring?” Now, this friend is better educated and much smarter than I am but I thought, “Well, DUH! Have you ever known me to wear one earring intentionally?” I reached up and touched my ears. She was right. Only one of a set of gold clamshells remained. That’s a bummer. I bought those earrings when my sisters and I were in Kennebunkport in 2009, and they’ve always been a happy reminder of the fun we had. Again, I had no idea when I’d lost it between my apartment, two DC Metro trains, coffee at Union Station, and then Amtrak to Baltimore.
And so, both of my singletons have been retired to that special place in my jewelry box, the place of Hope Springs Eternal. There are close to a dozen earrings there, each hoping that one day, its mate miraculously shows up in the wash or a box or a drawer. Every once in a while, it actually happens. Even when it doesn’t, I like to look at them once in a while… and remember.
Great post. I have a mobe pearl earring set in a thin rim of silver. It must be 1-1/2″ across and is incredibly cool. I once had its mate, too. Where did it disappear? I think somewhere in the design district of San Francisco when I was working. Who knows. And yes, I’ve kept it all these years. Maybe I’m hoping that I’ll get hip enough to wear one huge pearl earring. Or maybe it’s just plain hope.
I don’t wear earrings, but I sympathize with the saddness of lost sentimental jewelry, like a pinky ring from a childhood friend, lost during college. Once, the black onyx stone fell out of its setting in my college ring. I found it a year later, on the bottom of a sock.