I Was Thinking... Wallets and Purses

For Christmas, my wife got a new purse from our daughter. It wasn’t because her old one was worn out; in fact, I don’t know if she has an old purse or just a bunch of purses. I know she changes purses because when she uses a different one, she laments what she has left in the previous one.
But as I ponder this new addition to the purse inventory, it reminds me that nothing demonstrates the difference between the sexes as much as what they use to carry their essential items. Men carry wallets and women carry purses. Both of these are used to carry essentials like cash, credit cards, and a driver’s license. But that is where the similarities end.
I started to notice the differences between purses and wallets when I was young. My dad carried a wallet, and my mom always had a purse. Dad kept his wallet in the top drawer of his dresser. However, mom didn’t have “a” purse, she had a multitude of them. She kept them in the top of the closet, in the back of the closet and even under the bed.
My dad’s wallet was usually brown, of one constant size and made of leather. My dad got a new wallet when his old one wore out. Mom’s purses could be described as the colors of the rainbow. They could be of all sizes and shapes.
Some could almost be considered carry-on luggage, and some were hardly large enough to carry a hanky and a set of keys. Some were square, some rectangular, triangular, oblong, and whatever shape a bag is. Mom’s purses could be leather, metal, plastic, silk, denim, vinyl, or a variety of other fabrics. Not only were the outward appearances different, so was what was contained in them.
My dad carried cash, a couple credit cards, his driver’s license, a fishing license, a couple of pictures of his kids, and one piece of dental floss to be used in emergencies.
Now trying to describe what was in my mother’s purse is a little more of a challenge. The only time I invaded the sanctity of her purse was when I was looking for gum (she always had Dentine) or looking for a couple of coins to “borrow” for a bottle of pop. But over the years I saw all kinds of items being pulled out of her purse.
Mom always had tissues for a runny nose, for a teary eye, or to help rub dirt off the face of a small boy after she had spit on it. In addition to the gum there were usually some breath mints and a couple of cough drops sometimes encrusted with lint. As any woman, she also carried the feminine necessities: lip stick, a hairbrush, hand cream, powder, lip gloss, and a nail file. Of course, the contents varied depending on the size of the purse, the time of year or the particular event.
Dad always knew what was in his wallet and could find it quickly. Cash was organized by denominations, and all faced the same way. However, mom might know what was in her bag, if she hadn’t switched them recently, but finding what she wanted might take some time. It seemed like a cosmic law that whatever she really wanted had somehow migrated to the very bottom of the purse. The number of compartments and zippers in a purse also contribute to the amount of time it takes to find anything.
Dad’s wallet was constant in size, color, and contents and where he carried it, in his left rear pocket. But mom’s purse was always a variable. It changed with the season, the occasion, and the outfit. It had its own place in the car, on the church pew, or at the ball game.
When I grew up, I got a wallet like dad’s and kept it in the top drawer of the dresser. When I got married, I found my mother’s purses again but now they were on my wife’s arm. Some of the essentials changed a little. Now there was a cell phone. a key fob, and sunscreen but a lot of the rest was similar. I guess the more things change the more they really stay the same.
 
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