Three Ethnic Earrings on a Flea Market Napkin

My father and mother have both traveled all over the world, but that was before and after I was an adult. When we were growing up the four children and the dog and my parents made three trips across the country ( the dog only once).

We went to Tijuana and to Victoria, but that was before I had pierced ears and before suburban mothers ever did. So our gift shop purchases were things like small soapstone seals, or decorative blankets or for my mother, bottles of duty free Tabu perfume.

When we moved out and they divorced, each one of my parents found ways to go to lots of places where ethnic jewelry was available, but I don’t remember getting any as gifts. Each time I have gone to Mexico I have bought some silver earrings, all of which have disappeared.

When I went to China, I didn’t see any earrings to buy that January I flew,to Beijing. Or maybe I just wasn’t interested since it was as cold as I have ever been. I brought back a down jacket from a street stall and the feather leaked immediately; an old gourd and ivory cricket keeper from an antiques market that has been bull-dozed; and a Chinese Opera figurine from a hotel gallery.

All the earrings from foreign countries that remain, including most that have lost their mates, were purchased at Cost Plus or Chico’s or at garage sales, especially the ones held by churches. These seem to be the ones that are given away.

Photograph by Doug Greenberg