The Stranger in my Pocket

I walk every day in my gardens unless it’s winter or pouring rain, and there’s always a weed that needs pulling, a flower to cut for a vase, or something that needs deadheading. My fingernails always seem to get dirty!

Consequently I carry a slim, folding pocketknife to clean my fingernails, or use to cut a stem in the garden. I even carry it when I’m not in my gardening “attire” because you never know when you will need a small cutting tool. Last week at the Ohio plant swap, a friend brought a gift for me, taped inside a cardboard box. I reached into my pocket… and NO knife to cut the tape!

Later I looked through all the boxes of plants, and even my overnight bag… no knife! Once before, I lost that knife, and bought an almost identical Case knife before mine showed up again. So when I got home, I put the “alternate” knife in my pocket.

Funny how things have a “feel”. My alternate knife just didn’t “feel” right, so I went to Google to find another one just like my old one. No luck. Mine is a Case knife with a small blade that locks open (they are called a lockback) and measures 2-1/2” closed. (The “alternate” knife is also a Case knife, same specs.) The newer smallest slim knives that are even vaguely similar are still much longer than I want to carry all the time.

However, I know if I don’t carry a knife all the time, I will lose it. Same for a watch; I have lost many of them! I wear a small waterproof sports watch so I don’t have to take it off even to shower. For several years I have tried to find another one to have a back-up watch but everything I find is huge and clunky. I actually do know where my gold watch is… in my jewelry box, but I never wear it. (Partly for fear of losing it, and partly because I have no occasion to dress up anymore.)

Today, I finally found my "real" pocketknife in some stuff I was still unpacking from the truck. Yippee!! I immediately put it in my pocket and put the other one away. When I did, I realized why I didn’t like the “other” knife… it was like carrying a stranger in my pocket!