Celebrations: The Pocket-in-a-pocket employed - a guest post.

Well, due to such a fine turn-out on the previous post, I thought it befitting to ask a one Kate Zuccarello to further her thoughts on the pocket-in-a-pocket piece, et al following that ensued. Please welcome to the platform... Kate. She'll be here all week.


“There’s a Pocket in my Pocket” or rather “A People’s History of the Pocket in a Pocket” By Kate Zuccarello

[a guest post for a swiftly tilting planet of people]

The Pocket in a Pocket has become quite the trend these days. Some might surmise that this was another of those fabulously American phenomenon from the same people who brought us the concept of “supersizing”, the Flowbee vacuum powered home barbershop, and “inspected by number 17” tags [these aforementioned ideas all falling into my own category of “what is the need for that?”] It has been rumored as well that the Pocket in a Pocket is the handiwork of Steve Jobs as just another place you can store your gumstick size Ipod Shuffle. This is also not the case. Might I suggest that said Pocket in a Pocket might have a longer tale to relate; a tale that spans the ages and speaks of history, mystery, and wonder? For all practical purposes, we will call this the tale of the Pocket in a Pocket, an evolving and practical societal trend.

The first Pocket in a Pocket dates back to the ages of Yesteryear and Yore, actually with its first recorded sighting in the time of Christ and the Caesar’s. Though there were no Levis to be spotted then, there were plenty of togas and tunics to have the occasional Pocket in a Pocket innovation. Yes, Julius Caesar, paranoid that he had no hair, started the lovely “wreath of greenery” headband trend to cover up his balding problem. But while he was at it, he had to invent a place to store the extra ivy leaves should his wreath grow sparse when a wind might pick up throughout the day. Thus, you need a hidden pocket, and we see the birth of the Pocket in a Pocket. Jesus picked up on this trend storing the occasional parable cliff notes, should he forget the clever tale he was relaying, and even that doubting Thomas [still a doubter in the early years] kept a few hidden fish and loaves in his [increasingly smelly I might add] Pocket in a Pocket, should the promised feast not deliver.

As we walk toward the middle ages, we are greeted by Martin Luther, who used his Pocket in a Pocket to store the occasional, nails, tacks, and post-it notes, because he never really knew when he would have a thesis that he might have to post on the doors of many. Napoleon felt that his Pocket in a Pocket made him look taller. All of Charles V’s wives kept a list of his other wives in their Pocket in a Pocket so holiday gatherings wouldn’t be awkward when you forgot the other wives names. Science and the Arts didn’t skirt the Pocket in a Pocket either. Before “David” lost his clothes, you can bet they contained the Pocket in a Pocket. And Jonas Salk – Penicillin wasn’t discovered in a Petri dish, but instead in the mold growing inside of Salk’s Pocket in a Pocket on his lab coat. The Wright Brothers kept the occasional wingnut and bolt stored in their Pockets in a Pcoket, and unfortunately Amelia Earheart’s fifth pocket was on her other set of flight pants, because in it she usually kept her compass.

Which brings us up to modern times. The Pocket in a Pocket has stored the name of the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa, the guitar pick of Elvis Presley, Nixon’s Watergate Hotel key, the missing bullets from the Kennedy assassination, Monica Lewinsky’s dry cleaning bill, the lipstick of Tammy Faye, and the Sweet n Low of Cher. It truly has a plethora of handy uses. Think on such things the next time you need to store your Celebrations candy. You are in a long line of users…