AN EGG FROM 1962

sits on a shelf in our office/study/computer room/extra bedroom we don't need/den. Precariously close is a boomerang bought in Australia. On a shelf above it, sits an ostrich egg painted on one side with a map of Africa and on the other side drawings on the Big Four African animals.

My egg was made in Mrs. Snodsmith's language arts class in junior high. It's a Santa with a red corduroy coat. It's not very long because my egg was just normal size. How we have kept it all these years I simply don't know. My wife is a good packer and we've been fortunate to keep it out of reach of our children and grandkids.

The boomerang was actually purchased by our daughter. Since she bought four or five and gave them to her friends, she had one friend move to Guatemala, so we scarfed hers up. We threw boomerangs in Australia. Our daughter was better than I, but I cleaned her clock on the spear throwing. I wish I had a spear, just in case.

The ostrich egg was packaged by the seller, and he must have had a lot of experience for it made it fine back to Arizona. It has a fancy stand to sit on for display. My egg used to sit on an empty toilet paper roll. I haven't checked for awhile to see his throne. I checked. It's a fancy little red box that looked like it once held a Christmas ornament.

I don't know why I made that Santa. I remember it wasn't the season, and mine was the only one for Mrs. Snotslinger as we called her, but never to her face. I also remember Coach Thompson really liked my egg. But how I kept it all these years, how I even made it home from school with it are mysteries to me.