What Do You Miss That You Never Had?

     In the April 11, 2015 Jennifer Finney Boylan New York Times op-ed piece that I talked about in yesterday's post the writer took a twist on the subject of missing lost things when she told a story about missing something she'd never owned. 

    As a child she'd always wanted  Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots but never had them.  Believing his toy was now out of production, she missed  having had the chance to play with it.

         She recounted how the friend she confessed this to in a bar broke it to her that there was a second-hand shop a few doors down from the bar with a set of Rock' Em Sock 'Em Robots in the window.  So Ms. Boylan and her friend zipped out of the bar,  ran down the street, bought the Robots from the thrift store, returned to the bar, and played Rock 'Em sock 'Em Robots in the bar.  Later that night returning home on the subway Ms. Boylan noticed the man sitting next to her eying her Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots so she invited him to a game and the two played on the subway.
    It was a cute story.
    At the same time it reminded me of something  that I've never owned, never procured when it was available, and now it no longer is and I miss it.  Even though I never had it.

This is it.  A Marvin The Martian welcome mat.

    I sighted my one an only Marvin the Martian door mat several years ago in Portland, Oregon while visiting my sister Romaine.
    We went over to the home of one of  Romaine's friends and on the front porch sat that Marvin The Martian mat.
    It was pretty old and beat-up looking, but I was none the less enchanted.
    I asked Romaine's friend where she got her wonderful door mat and she told me that the mat had been there when she bought the house.
    I decided that I just had to have one such a welcome mat for my front porch.
    When I returned from my visit to Portland  I set about looking for the mat but have never found one.  They are apparently a long-gone artifact from the past.
    So I guess I'll have to live out my days without  a Marvin The Martian doormat or a set of Dinosaurs Attack! cards (see yesterday's post).
    Lucky for me - and for us all - that the world is full of plenty of other quirky stuff to be had.
    Probably more than enough of which I already own.