Ahh, that immortal question. I don’t have anything exciting like the One Ring, but I do think you can tell a lot about a person from what they keep in their pockets. Pockets can only hold so much (unless you are very sneaky) so the things people choose tend to be important to them. Just for fun I thought I’d share my carefully-chosen pocket arsenal.
1. Wallet
In one front pocket, I keep my wallet, which is actually just the slim card insert from a bigger wallet I don’t carry anymore. It’s just big enough for some cash, my very stylish non-driver ID card, and a few other important cards. I think wallets belong in front pockets instead of back pockets or jacket pockets because it’s much harder for someone to steal something from your front pocket without taking off your pants. And if your pants are off, you’ve got other problems to worry about.
2. Phone, also known as clock/camera/calendar
Yeah, I barely use my phone for actual calling. I can’t take a picture of it because I use it to take these awful, blurry pictures (yay!) but it’s a basic flip phone from a couple years ago. It went through the laundry and came back to life a week later. You get the idea. It goes in my other front pocket, along with my…
3. Pocketknife
A gift from my sister, my little blue Swiss Army knife has a tiny pair of scissors, a nail file with a flat head screwdriver, a bottle opener with that other kind of screwdriver, a pair of tweezers, and a toothpick, along with the knife. Art of Manliness explains why I carry it. It looks kind of like a person with a scissor leg when it’s partially open like that, doesn’t it?
4. Handkerchief
This goes into one of my back pockets. Need I say more?
5&6. Pen and notebook
The pen — which is the best pen ever, in case you were wondering — goes into my front pocket with my phone and knife, and the notebook goes into a back pocket. As a writer I always want to have somewhere to write my ideas, but it’s also good because people often say “Does anybody have a pen and paper?” and I am the only one who always does.
So there you have it. Wallet in the front left, phone/pen/knife in the front right, notebook in the back left, handkerchief in the back right. That’s what I have in my pocketses.
What do you carry around with you every day?
Oh, I like that pocketknife. Been thinking of getting something like that myself.
At the moment I carry around my iPhone, a money clip, a pen, a notebook, keys and some coins in my pockets. I often bring my backpack with me when I’m heading out too, though. Handy for carrying groceries or my jacket or my Kindle or a bottle of water. Or all of those things.
Swiss Army knives are very handy — I’ve used every tool on mine multiple times. The bigger ones scare me, though, the ones with thirty different things magically tucked away inside them. Overwhelming!