"Somewhere I have never traveled" *

I was moving some cold weather clothes from the back of the closet and came across something of mine that I had forgotten that I had. When I was younger, I starting collecting travel patches and sewing them on my L.L.Bean backpack. Thing was, the patches were from other people's travels and trips, not my own. So the bag was christened the "Backpack of Places I have Never Been." I suppose it was kind of like displaying Girl Scout badges that you hadn't earned, but, as I never was a Girl Scout, I didn't care. I just thought it was cool, and it was a great conversation starter with new people.

This backpack is actually the second "Back Pack of Places I Have Never Been" as the first one had to be retired shortly after I moved to Boston. So the second version is a little more structured in the placement of patches; it also has a lot more patches as I made more friends who went on trips and brought me back patches as souvenirs. And, eventually, I went to some of these places.

I stopped collecting the patches shortly before my first trip to Europe because I didn't come back from England or France with any patches of my own. I think it was mostly because I had run out of room on the bag, but I have to confess that sewing them on was rather tedious. Anyhow, I thought I would take some photos of the bag for posterity and post them here. Some of my friends and family members who read this blog might recognize a patch or two that they brought home for me!







*The title of this blog post comes from a poem by e.ecummings, whose grave I still can't seem to locate