On Buttons (Pack Ratting, Part II)

Last night I spent a good half hour sorting through piles of little zip baggies of miscellaneous buttons. You know, those extra buttons that some of your clothes come with, in case you need spare buttons in the rare instance that you actually wear your items long enough for the buttons to pop off. Sure, once in while, a button can get snagged in the wash, and it'll be either a button you critically need for either functional (i.e., pants button) or aesthetic (i.e., third button down your shirt) reasons. But really, how often do you need such buttons to justify having overgrown piles of spare buttons?

I was thinking about this last night, as I stared at the buttons and struggled to figure out which blouse or coat or pants they were for. It's not too hard figuring out a shiny silver button or a lime green one, but what about the endless supply of clear or white buttons? In some cases I was smart enough to include the clothing tag inside the baggy. Which helped, for the most part. And then came the sudden realization that perhaps some of these buttons have outlived the article of clothing they were intended for. Gasp!

9 & Company, Size 4, Clearance $25.98.
My mind drew a blank. ?

Even more perplexing, a plain envelope where I hand wrote: "white peasant blouse."

White peasant blouse? That didn't even ring a bell. I took the button out and inspected it and it didn't even look familiar. Then I went into my closet and flipped through articles of clothing (through what little budge room I could get in a jam-packed closet). Nothing closely resembled something that would complement the small round white satin button.

I racked my brain, when slowly, a vague memory starting seeping back.... of the 11th grade. National Honor Society. We had to buy all white outfits to stand guard for the 12th graders graduation. Yep, thirteen and a half years have gone by, the blouse long gone, long forgotten, yet the little button still remains.

I stuffed it with the rest of the buttons in a large ziplock bag and stuffed the whole thing in my closet.