Saturday, April 05, 2008

Shedding the Past

Eric the Esky has left this mortal coil. Long live Eric the Esky.

Why, you may ask, have I unceremoniously placed this small cooler in the trash?

Eric lived in my garage, along with all my camping gear. I was in the garage today—taking my bicycle out for the season—and Eric caught my eye.

Turbo bought this Igloo cooler for $4.94 at a second-hand store in Santa Barbara, for the 2002 cross-country camping trip we took in Henry the Ford Taurus. Turbo must have been in a goofy mood (oh, big surprise) because he wrote all over the cooler with a Sharpie.



I sat there looking at this dopey cooler, and it dawned on me.

Turbo was four romances ago. It's bad enough you still have his car. What would C think if you went camping and asked him to go get the milk from the cooler?

I went straight to Target and bought a new cooler. Eric, meanwhile, went to that big campsite in the sky.

Maybe it's time I tossed out that Australian beer holder too.

4 comments:

Amanda Castleman said...

It's always a fine line between purging and preserving memory, eh? I can see why Eric the Esky had to go – any blatantly ex-grafitted object must – but maybe the beer holder's not so bad?

Marie Javins said...

Maybe C will embrace the beer holder. He does like beer, after all.

Amanda Castleman said...

What's not to like? Especially with a foam cozy to protect one's palm from cooled-Coors shock?

Marie, if you or C can't hack the holder, I volunteer to caretake this memorabilia for as long as you need. We mustn't deprive future generations of their cheap literary-delusion eBay treasures, after all.

Anonymous said...

Someone on freecycle may have been wanting just such a cooler.

Recycle!