The Charm Bracelet - A Story to Tell

It started way back when I was in grammar school. I received a birthday gift from my aunt - a bracelet with a single charm. It was the state of Massachusetts. After that for several years, I received a different “charm” that started to fill the bracelet - mostly related to New England - baked beans, a whale, and coke bottles (my uncle worked at coke.)  I would call that my personal bracelet. What a clever idea for an annual gift in so many ways. You could say the many things that reflected growing up became a part of the bracelet - playing the organ, softball, Christmas, all the states I lived in, school, a dog house, Marquette university, RN insignia... it tells a lot about who you are. I also started another bracelet that reflected our travels - universal studios, Disneyland, Toronto, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Las Vegas... you can tell when I stopped collecting charms because so many more interesting things and places we have traveled aren’t even noted. I thought about hanging the bracelet on my purse, but decided against it because I wouldn’t want to lose any of the trinkets. I can already see there is one missing and can’t figure out what it was. I suppose there are other versions of these bracelets and necklaces out there these days. They reflect a period of time in my life that no one else can duplicate. So I’ll keep them stored in my bedside stand and pull them out every once in a while. It’s an interesting way to tell a story.