Red

In my early twenties and hitch-hiking through California i met Red and Amanda; Red was named because of his hair and beard and Amanda, the truck that he was driving was named after a character in a Tom Robbins book.

Red horded, he had a theory that every “thing” had been manufactured to have a specific purpose and to find one discarded injured his belief in the order and purpose of the universe.

So he took them in and cared for them in the back of his cavernous truck until such time that they would have renewed purpose.

I myself was the lucky recipient of a brass letter holder embossed with a “Welcome to Bonnie Scotland” motif that he hung on the front of my tent.

I collect rather than hord, though if I was challenged to explain the difference between the back of Red’s truck and my own pockets, drawers and attic I probably wouldn’t be able to.