This spring, my father gave me a trunk that had been gathering dust in his storage shed.

“I think this is yours,” he said. I wasn’t sure, but I took it because I’m a pack rat and even if it wasn’t mine, doubtless there was something interesting inside.

And there was! I found an enormous box full of amazing old letters from a high school sweetheart, an artistic fellow named Ned who went on to become a professional illustrator. I emailed him about the box and said “Dude! Do you want this amazing box full of your drawings? It’s fabulous!” He said to recycle it. Clearly, Ned did not grow up to be a pack rat. I haven’t had the heart to take him up on his suggestion, but with the move coming up, Ned’s art will probably indeed go into the recycling bin. It kills me!

Also in the box was my entire collection of ElfQuest comics. Oh man, I loved ElfQuest. When Dre and I first hooked up, we were both so pleased to learn that we’d grown up reading ElfQuest. Cutter, Skywise, Letah, Ember! ElfQuest was awesome. I will not be recycling the ElfQuests.

guyliner appAlso in the box was a relic of my high school theater days — a vintage CABOODLES make up case. It still had two yellow post-its taped onto the top that said “ARIEL’S MAKE-UP” and “RUM-TUM-TUGGER IN CATS,” relics from the last high school play I was in. (Assuming you ignore Jesus Christ Superstar, which I dropped out of because I had beef with the director and felt the whole show was miscast.)

If you are a woman of a certain age, you know exactly what I’m talking about when I say CABOODLES. If you are not, here’s the short explanation: Caboodles were essentially tackleboxes for girls. They were just like tackleboxes except for they had rounded edges, often a built in mirror, and were the most obnoxious colors of pink and turquoise and purple. Instead of tackle, you filled them with makeup.

I laughed at the Caboodles box and forgot about it. But as Dre and I were preparing for Shambhala I realized that I wanted to bring all my most ridiculous glitters and eye shadows and every color of lip gloss I owned and where in the hell was I supposed to put this stuff and OMG, what about the Caboodles?

And so after 14 years of dormancy, I pulled out the Caboodles box and filled it with makeup. Who knew I had so many sparkly eye shadows? And who knew how well they all fit into the Caboodles’ compartments? The box got some heavy use at Shambhala, and I haven’t had the heart to take my makeup out of it since returning home. It’s ugly as sin — the logo was clearly designed in 1987 and the colors are too much even for an old raver like me — but man. That thing is useful. Do they make a more refined, classy version?

Amusingly, Caboodles are still around. They’ve branched out, but have a “retro” line. HA!