Everyone has a few (at least) boxes of things that get moved over and over and yet never unpacked, right? I have one box that made the move with me from Norton to Cambridge to Alexandria (Virginia) to Oxford (Mississippi) and never got opened.
Recently, I was scared silly when Oprah did a show on hoarders. You know, people who have so many boxes (eBay purchases, paper towels, junk mail, whatever) in their house that they literally have pathways through them?
Anyhow, so Oprah scared me and I started going through things that hadn’t seen the light of day since the Clinton administration and what do you think I found? A plastic pitcher. From the Elegant Pub in Norton, Massachusetts.
It doesn’t say “The Elegant” on it. I just remember that it’s from the Elegant. I remember the night that I, er, acquired it, too. Senior year. They announced last call at the Elegant. It was snowing and we ordered one more pitcher of beer, then ran outside with it and hid it in the bushes (“to stay cold”), and went back inside to finish and settle the tab. Then, the four of us made our way back to campus with our “to go” pitcher of beer from the Elegant.
Apparently, this became a habit—not just among my friends at Wheaton, but Wheaton students in general—because sometime later that school year, a friend ordered a new pitcher of beer at the Elegant and the bartender grumpily said, “I don’t have any more pitchers because you guys keep stealing them.” (in retrospect, maybe this is why we started going to Wendell’s more.)
Now the only question is: what should be done with this plastic pitcher from the Elegant that formerly held beer on a snowy night in Norton? Last I heard, the Elegant was no more, so we can’t return it to them.
I’m pretty sure the Wheaton Archives won’t want it.
No matter what, I guess this much is clear: the pitcher is coming to reunion with me next May and y’all can help me figure out where it should go.
Sarah Nagle Null is class fund agent for Wheaton’s class of 1993. She lives in Oxford, Mississippi with her plastic pitcher, her husband and her twin boys, age three. She blogs at www.phenway.com.
