Every time my husband buys a new car, he cleans the trunk of the outgoing car by shoving everything into a big garbage bag and putting it in the basement. We have had several bags. No, he doesn’t get a new car often, he has just been driving for a while.

When I get into a cleaning and organizing spell, I get the obligatory permission to go through a bag. Like an archaeologist, I research and estimate the approximate date range of when time was frozen here inside the trash bag. The most recent bag yielded several, presumably unchecked lotto tickets dated 1996. Who knows, we could have been millionaires. I did discover cash in the bag, though. $2.87 worth of change in various coin denominations. I knew there was some coin cash in the bag because when I shook it, I could hear it rattling on the bottom. Another interesting find was a ring. I have a pretty good memory of my rings, so I don’t think this was one of mine, but it is now.

For now, the big dig is over, until the next trade in sends another trash bag time capsule into the basement.