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I am often amazed by the articles of clothing I see left behind in the city’s parks, especially where sports or outdoor events are held. Sneakers, sandals, jackets and other items are left on benches unclaimed.

When I was a teacher, at the end of the school year, the ‘Lost and Found Box’ in the school’s office was full of lost clothing and almost brand-new items that children left in the gym or on the playground that children or their parents never reclaimed.

I think of my own childhood when I came from school one day to my mother questioning me where my shoes were. I had worn my favorite pair of penny loafers to school, but I had to change into sneakers for gym class. I forgot to change back into my loafers and left them at school.

Knowing I faced one of her ‘you need to be more responsible sermons’, I answered, “I forgot them and left them at school.” That answer would require me to walk back to school and get them. That very hot afternoon, I walked six long blocks back to school and found the doors locked. Everyone had left for the day. Knowing my mom took buying clothes and shoes for us very seriously, I knew I would have to go back home and hear her long sermons about how much clothes and shoes cost, and how I needed to be more responsible about how I took care of the things that she brought me with her hard-earned money.

I was facing one of those sermons and a return home without my loafers when I saw the school’s janitor, Mr. Sattherwaite, leaving the building. ‘Oh, thank goodness, bless my soul,’ I thought to myself as I saw Mr. Sattherwaite. I’ll be spared the ‘money doesn’t grow on trees to provide me money to buy you shoes and clothes sermon.’ I pleaded my case to Mr. Satterwaite and he opened the door to the building so I could retrieve my shoes.

I had a long and wonderful history with those loafers. I loved how they looked with my ‘knee socks.’ Back then, when our school ‘shoes’ (as we called them) showed signs of wear, we took them to Mr. Herman Eason’s shoe repair shop called the ‘City Shoe Hospital’ on Main Street, next to Tayloe’s Drug store.

He would re-sole and polish the shoes, extending their life until you outgrew them. I loved those loafers and had them re-soled once before. I loved the shiny new pennies Mr. Eason would put in my newly re-soled shoes.

It’s so easy for parents today to simply replace the clothing their children lose and forget somewhere. But I’m glad I came from a generation that re-cycled, repaired or ‘regenerated’ things instead of replacing them so easily. And Momma was so right, money doesn’t grow on trees!