During a friend’s visit, I pulled out my memory box and found my collection of buttons (R.E.M.! U2! The Stranglers! The Pixies!). I am tempted to put them back into rotation on my denim jacket or on one of my canvas market bags, maybe one at a time instead of crowding them in a cluster like I once did. I also pulled out some hair clips (rainbow-striped and star-shaped!). What I didn’t find in the box: my lavender feather roach clip. I remember taking a trip to Florida to visit my grandparents and buying one at the mall. My grandmother had no idea what she was paying for and I was far too young and innocent to understand what a roach clip was used for—I simply liked the purple feathers and knew girls back home who were older than me and wore them clipped to their glamorous, permed locks. Soon I, too, would have a perm and I would clip the long, feather and leather piece to the back of my hair. This was a few years before I grew a "tail" of hair longer than the rest and braided the piece like Aimee Mann in the band ‘Til Tuesday. Yes, it was a time of taking risks with style. Now I have a notion to attach a roach clip to a handbag or a belt loop on my jeans, and while I would have loved to open my memory box to find the roach clip at the bottom, I am comforted by the fact that you can (almost) always replace what was once lost. What you can’t find on eBay, you can get on Etsy and here are two I might just have to buy.
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