2023, animals, Family, Food, Nature

Memento

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YA and I took a trek to Wisconsin last Friday to visit Fawn Doe Rosa.  We go at least once a year but on Friday, we got a bucket list moment. 

Just by the luck of the draw, we rounded the corner to the llama, mini horse and donkey paddocks to find a donkey mama on her side, just about to give birth.  It took only about five more minutes and there was a baby donkey out and breathing.  The staff said that the baby would probably stand in about 25 minutes.  YA and I had animal food in hand, so we hung around feeding the various critters in that part of the park.  The baby stood up almost exactly at the 25-minute mark.  Both YA and I have seen an animal being born before (Miracle of Birth at the State Fair) but neither of us had actually seen a new baby take its first steps into the world.  Amazing.

Even without seeing the new foal entering the world, it was a wonderful day at Fawn Doe Rosa.  We even had a female peacock keep us company during our picnic lunch.  We did try to give her some of the corn that we had in our animal food buckets, but I think she was hoping for something from our picnic basket. 

There was a new design of sweatshirt in the gift shop.  Why settle for the three FDR sweatshirts you already have at home when there is a new one!?!

Do you do souvenirs when you go places?

47 thoughts on “Memento”

  1. I do not buy souvenirs when traveling. In fact, a stop at the gift shop is one of the LAST things I consider doing. Decades ago I read something, somewhere (I hope it wasn’t in the Readers’ Digest, but I fear it might be so) that T-shirts with slogans were “bumper stickers for people”. The idea of advertizing for someone else’s business operation does not appeal to me.

    I have a hoodie that I wear on cool days that bears the name and logo of a graduate school I attended in 1980. I began to regularly make alumni contributions after I retired. I think I must have hit some sort of threshold with the development office, because one day the clothing just showed up in the mail. I wear it because it’s the garment I need on those days.

    This is evidence of my being something of a curmudgeon, but probably it labels me more accurately as a cheapskate. I’m not proud to bear either of these designations, so you won’t find that declaration on any T-shirt that I don.

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  2. Depends what you consider a souvenir. If you mean a manufactured product for sale in a gift shop, then no. But when we travel we are aware of used bookstores in the area and places related to fiber arts and often come home with a purchase we’ve made in one or more of those places. We invariably return from trips to Lake Superior with a few rocks.

    Although I rarely wear clothing with any sort of message or motto, when I was in NYC I considered purchasing a cap from the Strand bookstore, that being a logo I would willingly represent. As it happened, no caps were on display and I assumed none existed. I see them offered on Strand’s website but if I purchased one now it would no longer be a souvenir. I seldom wear caps anyway.

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      3. Yeah, I knew when I was typing “female peacock” that something wasn’t right there, but I was too lazy to stop and look it up.

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  4. Only if I really want the item – first time in Estes Park (when I was 10) I begged for a pair of “Indian” mocassins, and my folks let me get them. I also have a carved wooden Scandinavian troll from there. As an adult I rarely buy anything just as a souvenir, but again, if I see some item I want/need, I will buy it.

    They’re not technically souvenirs, but I proudly wear t-shirts that advertise some of the festivals I volunteer for – esp. if they’re a good color. Frozen River Film Fest comes to mind. And for the food co-op…

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  5. Rise and Shine, Baboons.

    I purchase Christmas decorations everywhere I go, then at Christmas when I decorate the tree, Lou and I discuss the places we have visited and favorite memories of those trips. It is an enjoyable way to re-experience things we enjoyed when we did them. Or sometimes we remember funny stuff, like getting lost in old town Santa Fe which was a maze. I started buying these in the early 1980s so there are many of them.

    I did buy a Tshirt when Krista and I attended Hamilton in May. That Tshirt is a good one which I find myself wearing a lot.

    OT: I am eating a Georgia peach on my oatmeal. It is really good. I am trying to get my feet back under myself following the preceding weeks of running back and forth between home and Iowa while my mother died, then the family gatherings that followed. I think I made 6 round trips in 4 weeks, but really I have lost track. Now I must walk the puppy and weed a front garden before it gets hot. Those weeds took over while I was busy elsewhere. As weeds do.

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    2. Yes, indeed. And I will be grateful for them. I am glad I went to be with her. It healed a lot. Further, a limit I set with some family members about her Memorial Service caused a lot of conflict, but I also prevailed in this matter which made a difference about how smoothly things played out. I think my limit allowed some other family members to resolve an issue more adequately than what they were planning before I said no to it. (It would have caused a lot of inappropriate disruption in the Memorial Service).

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      1. As a pastor I used to tell my church members to say that I had rules that set limits, like only two eulogies of 5 minutes each, or how they wanted it. I often got told off. My daughter does the same.
        Clyde

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  6. I’ve bought an occasional T-shirt from canoe outfitters in the BWCAW area. Sometimes a book or CD from a local author or musician(s). Also bought a few golf shirts from bucket list golf courses if I find one I like and that is reasonably priced. But souvenirs are far down my priority list when I travel.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  7. I have so many Rock Bend t-shirts that I had to pack most of them into a largish plastic tote. I’m not willing to part with them yet and I can’t possibly wear them all. Many years ago, a friend took all of the Rock Bend t-shirts she could get from people and sewed them into a Rock Bend quilt which was given away at the raffle. Perhaps I should find a good quilter for mine.

    I have a number of t-shirts and sweatshirts that say something about Lake Superior or Tettegouche State Park.

    I don’t buy coffee mugs or little spoons but I will buy bumperstickers that have place names. I guess most of my souvenir collecting isn’t about a business as much as an event or a location. I also look for art, pottery, or textile art.

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      1. It came from Robin’s grandmother. It has always amused me. Curious, even cryptic choice of inscription, don’t you think? It says it’s a souvenir but is it really? If so, a souvenir of what? Of itself? Are souvenirs souvenirs forever—even after they cease to remind anyone of anything?

        Back when I had the equipment to make rubber stamps I made myself a stamp that said “Souvenir of Earth”. I could stamp it on just about anything and turn it into a memento. But can you have a souvenir of a place you’ve never left?

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  10. I have more T-shirts than I wear, but I don’t think I’ve bought any. Swag or gifts with donations.
    I don’t think we get souvenirs very often. Son used to always want SOMETHING from where ever we were. He HAD to have a toy. Daughter isn’t the same way; she doesn’t care so much. If anything, I’d probably get a hat.
    I used to buy the programs from Rock concerts. It doesn’t seem like they do that anymore. Nowadays, it’s cool to look back at the programs from Queen, The Who, Pink Floyd, Men at Work,
    Springsteen, Van Halen, and even the concerts I only went too because a girlfriend wanted to go; Hall and Oates, Journey, haha.
    And working on the stage crew, about half the time we’d get crew shirts but only AFTER the work was done. They’re all gone these days…

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  12. I had relatives who would collect an item from places such as spoons or thimbles. We would on rare occasions buy something struck us or me alone, rarely with a place name in it, except tour books, such as for places like Savannah or Sandra for Paris and Rome and so on.

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  13. In my early years of international travel, I would buy a bunch of souvenirs (some for myself, some as gifts for family/friends). Now I am much pickier about purchased items I come home with. T shirts are never on my list. I do have a sheepskin rug from New Zealand, small pearl earrings from Vietnam, Aran sweaters from Ireland, an opal pendant from Australia, several genuine Hummel figurines from Germany, Orrefors wine glasses from Sweden, a couple Lladro figurines from Spain, and Christmas ornaments from several countries. On several trips I purchased prints or textiles that are now framed and hanging on my walls. But I have run out of wall space in my small condo so I no longer buy these items. My one touristy indulgence is refrigerator magnets – they are inexpensive and easy to pack.

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  15. I distinguish between souvenirs and mementos. I think of souvenirs as something produced to sell to tourists, often with something written on it as reminder of where or what it came from. A memento can be anything, but I typically choose something that unique to that particular place. My tupilaqs, for instance, are unique to Greenland, and my black lacquered boxes I have never seen anywhere but in Russia. I have several small soapstone sculptures carved by Greenlandic Inuits, and a larger carved one by an Inuit artist from Canada. The latter I found in an antique shop in Minnesota, so not really a memento, at least not from Greenland.

    My favorite mementos from Mexico are several baskets woven by the local Seri indian women, and a colorful woven tote that I use whenever I go shopping.

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  16. OT my last four days has been another walk down a torturous medical path. Now an hour ago I stopped in Now Care to have my fluctuating bp checked out, and they have decided to do all sorts of things like ekg and blood tests and bp in different positions.
    I should have just gone home
    Clyde

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    3. We had an inch and a quarter in Northfield last night. It was kind of a wicked little thunderstorm with twisty winds and heavy rain between 9:30 and 10 pm. After the storm ended, my doorbell inexplicably rang. Anyone I know would have let me know they were here so I wasn’t expecting anyone. I didn’t answer because it was strange. I don’t have one of those internet video doorbell cameras so I might be curious forever.

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