When I was a kid, around 10 years old, I lost my favorite knife, twice.
The knife is a little Valor brand lockback. It was my first lockback and one of my prized possessions.
Here's the story of the first loss, it requires a little explanation-
My sister was a member of her high school marching band. Each band member had a few wooden bins located around the city for people do deposit their old newspapers. Band members would collect the paper and turn it in at a recycling plant to earn money to pay for their band activities.
Sometimes I would go with my dad to pick up the papers. On one occasion I used my Valor knife to cut string holding large bundles of paper together. At one point I put the knife down on top of a piece of the wood that the bin was made of. And I forgot to retrieve it when we left.
When I got home I realized what I had done. But the bin was on the other side of town and my father didn't want to drive all that way just for my knife. I knew exactly where it was, but I couldn't get to it. And that was torture.
I had to wait a week before it was time to go back and collect the papers again, and I was certain the knife wouldn't be there. After all, it was in plain view of anyone depositing papers into the bin.
When we arrived, I couldn't get out of the car, or get over to the bin and lift it's lid fast enough. When I lifted the lid, to my surprise, and to my great pleasure, the knife was sitting exactly where I left it.
On the other occasion, unbeknownst to me, the knife slipped out of my pocket while sitting in a big recliner at a friends house. I had no idea where I lost it, I thought it was lost forever. About a week or so later my friend called me and told me his dad found my knife in the chair. I consider myself very lucky to have gotten it back, not only because I lost it, but because my friend told me that his dad had considered keeping it.
I'm 46 years old now, and I still have that knife today.
