FOUND - Leather With My Name On It

I found this hand-tooled leather bag at the Trinity Hospice near the South Kensington tube station. This bag sings of the Wild West with a harmony that recalls something from my childhood. When I was a kid I imagined the women who carried these sorts of handbags were not only well-healed but well-travelled. I'd yet to venture west of the Mississippi River so an accessory like this whispered, 'I've been there. You haven't.' Every year my family did travel to Lake Erie, essentially the Ohio coastline, to a huge amusement park called Cedar Point. Along with cotton candy, roller coaster rides & giant souvenir pencils, you could buy a custom-made leather ID bracelet. A man with a degree of expertise would 'hand tool' your name into a strap with a snap that you wore around your wrist. The 12-year-old custom was to then exchange the ID bracelet with a boy you fancied. Bill Hunt and I made the swap, although by the end of summer he'd already asked for his back. Early heartache and a lesson in falling too fast. Even though it was £45, I fell hard for this tough but lady-like leather lovely.