I intended to take my umbrella into work yesterday (rain was in the forecast), but I arrived without it. Did I leave it on the bus, or did I never take it out of my car? It didn't take me long to convince myself that it was still in my car, and indeed it was there when I got to my car that evening.
But it made me realize how much I treasure my DuPont Merck golf umbrella. It's big so that I can walk comfortably in the rain with it, but more importantly it's a link to my time in Delaware when I worked for a company that no longer exists. I enjoyed my work there and it was my first real job after college. It was then that I established my career as a software support developer. I discovered HTML programming and developed an HTML-based software manual on my group's network long before I had ever heard the word "intranet". I worked with statisticians, who helped me see why data presentation was so important and the joy of hitting upon the perfect way to accurately reflect the results. I even got to attend an FDA pre-review jury for a new indication of one of our drugs. I have good memories of those 5 years.
And since the company was later bought out by Bristol-Myers Squibb, there is no way to replace my unique, one-of-a-kind DuPont Merck souvenir. I'm glad I didn't lose it.