I’ve always liked the question, “What three things would you take with you if you were shipwrecked on a deserted island?”  It does give you pause about what’s important to you.  I always wondered if it would spoil a budding romance if I embarrassedly admitted that one of my choices would be a jar of mayonnaise.  I seem to use it on everything.  Maybe it’s because when I was in college, my roommate’s mother used to send us homemade mayo with fresh California lemons right off her tree.  There’s never been any other like it but because she hooked me on it, I use whatever brand I can find on sandwiches, vegetables, fish, and a lot more.

When I was in the Navy and flew to islands in the Pacific, we took a lot of odd items to “make a deal” with the locals.  The natives loved trading with us.  They would give us monkeys, fish, and bowls carved from mangroves or palm trees, fans handmade using seashells and braided coconut husks, carvings from coral, and giant turtle shells.  We gave them cans of paint (don’t ask me what they used them for), tools, cigarette lighters, and yes, I’m ashamed to say it, cigarettes and cheap jewelry.

This was many years ago.  I wonder if they still live there, still have coral, turtles, and giant clams?  Anybody been to Ponape, Ulithi, Yap, or Truk lately?