inkbluesky

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I came across this blog today, but she's a girl , besides that possibility that she shares my affinity for e.e. cummings style blog titles i really like the site design and the choice of graphics. It also happens that I find the whole idea of having a twin intriguing and was happy to find a short review of a novel about twins while I was visiting.

Why We Buy Dumb Souvenirs  

 Here's a curious trivia tidbit from U.S. history:  In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams took leave from their Europe-based diplomatic duties and traveled to Stratford-upon-Avon to visit the home of William Shakespeare. Not much was recorded of the occasion, but one fact of their pilgrimage to the Bard's birthplace stands out: At some point during the tour, the two American statesmen brandished pocketknives, carved a few slivers from a wooden chair alleged to have been Shakespeare's, and spirited them home as souvenirs.

In retrospect, it's easy to look back on this incident and conclude that — in terms of travel protocol, at least — Jefferson and Adams were complete knuckleheads.  The thing is, I haven't seen any evidence to prove that, as world-wandering travelers, our quest for souvenirs has become any more logical or dignified in the last 220 years.

I recently traveled to Key West, where a popular section of Duval Street is crowded with souvenir boutiques.  In a certain sense, this stretch of Duval felt a tad anachronistic, since — in the age of  online shopping — you don't have to travel to Key West to load up on painted seashells and exotic cigars.  What struck me more, however, was not the items typically associated with Florida, but the bizarre overabundance of T-shirts emblazoned with rude messages.

It seems ridiculous that anyone would travel to Key West and buy a T-shirt that has nothing whatsoever to do with south Florida ("I'm not a bitch, I'm 'Miss Bitch' to you").  Still, bringing home a tacky keepsake from Key West can serve as a sort of travel credential — an existential referent that proves you went to south Florida and got drunk enough to exercise bad judgment.  Similarly, for Jefferson and Adams, those Stratfordian wood-shavings were tangible proof that they had journeyed across England and touched a chair that had, presumably, once seated Shakespeare.

I haven't bought a souvenir in years and I can't say that with pride. There is something about a souvenir years after the fact that is a kind of spark for wistful memories of that trip, or vacation, or whatever. Along the way I've also supported some local artists. They may crank out their stuff like one man factories, I never asked, but they at least had a handed rather then factory look.