July 25,2026

Bill has carried the same wallet for so many years that it’s become less of a wallet and more of a filing cabinet with rounded corners.

Most people carry a driver’s license, a few credit cards, and some cash.

Bill carries history.

Receipts that should have been thrown away years ago. Telephone numbers whose owners have long since forgotten they ever wrote them down. Business cards. Tiny scraps of paper that made perfect sense at the time. Things that might come in handy someday.

And the wallet itself?

It isn’t just any wallet.

It’s made from the leather of my old Frye boots.

When the boots had finally reached the end of their life, Bill didn’t see worn-out footwear. He saw beautiful leather. Somehow those boots became the wallet he still carries today.

So every day, tucked into his back pocket, he carries a little piece of my past along with all of his own.

If you want to know Bill, start with his wallet.

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Junk Drawer Memory is a collection of treasures hidden in a drawer. Bill’s wallet is his own personal junk drawer—only he carries it everywhere he goes.

My memoir has a junk drawer. Bill has a junk drawer in his back pocket. Together, they tell the story of a marriage built on saving what mattered, even when no one else would have thought to keep it.