Strange Talisman

One of my more mundane quirks is the nearly constant need to jot down notes to myself and place them at various places around the house.  At present, I have notes in five locations.  These notes range from “rotate tires” to “Brooke Annibale – under streetlights (acoustic).”

Back in my days of working construction, I left my work clothes on chair in the laundry room with my boots placed alongside them.  If, during the course of an evening, something about work struck me—say a loose end I needed to complete or something I needed to order—I would write a note and place it on my clothing so I would see it in the morning.

Often, thoughts about work struck me when I was too busy to write a note or had no immediate means to do so.  Instead of writing a note, I would grab something strange, say, one of my wife’s magazines or a fork, and I would place the item atop my work clothing.  In the morning, the sight of a strange talisman on my clothing would trigger the thought that caused me to place the item there.

Eventually, that transformed into a single method of reminder when a thought struck me.  Both my wife and my sister, on different occasions, caught sight of my talisman and asked: “Mitch, why is there a banana stuffed inside your boot?”

My answer would be something along this order: “Because I need to order more half-inch conduit.”

—Mitchell Hegman