Once I had a Glomesh purse. It was a purchase I had made with funds that I had gathered from my multiple babysitting jobs and my part time after school job at McDonalds. On the grand sum of the $2.25 an hour I earned as a not quite 15 year old, you can imagine back in the 80s, my Glomesh purse was something I had coveted and once I had it, treasured.

It was not unlike the one pictured, but it wasn’t golden it was silver. It contained my meagre earning and my hopes and dreams and it was a symbol to me of freedom and everything I could become. I loved that purse. It wasn’t ever destined to be mine for very long, but i remember it with fondness and the lessons it taught me. And the nostalgia thoughts bring now.

How I loved that purse. That symbol of me growing  up entering the adult world of working status it gave me while still being a school girl at a Catholic all girls high school in a small town. It was my pride and joy. From the time my mother had shown me hers years before, I had coveted the sparkly business and I knew that once I had the money to purchase and something to put in it I would buy myself one.

I think it was my first meaningful grown up purchase. A far cry from the trend of the day, which was the velcro surfie wallet that everyone seemed to have. It was sparkly, it was girly, and IT WAS MINE! I had taken it to school with me in my hessian haversack (covered in the mandatory peace symbols and smiley face badges also popular in the day). Usually it would have been transferred from sack to locker. But on the one fateful day, I left it. In the sack. With a feeling of safety (after all everyone else around was in class right? ) but, as I returned to my sack, and collected it outside of the assembly hall it felt light. It felt empty, and I knew before I reached inside , my glosmesh purse was gone. Along with my shiny new ATM card and my earnings from my babysitting job the evening before (earmarked for entry into my account.. they never made it). Along with my naivety that nothing  bad could ever happen and that I was in a safe secure world where things you loved never got taken from you.

Someone else it seems had wanted my Glomesh purse more than me. They also wanted my bank account more than me, as they tried on several occasions to use it and withdraw my money. This was in the times before tap and go, imagine if that had been available? This was another adult first. The first time I’d been violated by theft.

I reported the left of my prize possession to the school principal, who took into account my description of my purse. Which as I’ve said before was not a common purchase amongst 14-15 year old girls but more so a treasured and coveted item. And again another first occurred. The indifference of someone (the principal was a Nun and therefore possessions of vanity like my Glomesh purse were not a priority for her). I could see on her face, that she in her righteousness felt my purse was a statement of vanity and wealth and that I should not have had my purse at school. That indeed I should not have had the audacity to have flaunted such wealth in front of my peers. And my heart sank and broke a little as I realised, and was made to feel that this theft was my own fault. For being so darned stupid to even bring it to school in the first place.

A few weeks past, and nary a mention of my purse, but many more haversack thefts occurred. The thieving ring was not only targeting the Glomesh purses, they had moved on and were stealing the velcro surfie wallets that I had downgraded too after the theft of my purse. Said velcro wallets were being found emptied and abandoned in bins in streets near by the school. Obviously the theiving ring was thriving and yet,  my Glomesh purse was never recovered. And they tried and tried to use my ATM card, but back then, there was no CCTV.

Once day I was sitting at lunch with a group of friends in the school yard when a girl who had wanted to join our table arrived and was welcomed. She sat beside us and with a wry smile, offered to shout us all drinks from canteen. A generous offer indeed. An offered accepted and friendships bought. From her haversack she pulled a glittery shiny object. From her haversack she pulled MY GLOMESH PURSE. And I could bet the contents of that purse were ill gotten gains from her thievery. And yet in the blinding flash that was my purse being pulled from her haversack in the autumnal sunshine, she also blinded my friendship group. In the purchase of cooling and delicious treats.

I knew it was my purse, but I could not prove it was my purse, and apparently it was a gross invasion of her privacy if I insisted I looked inside that purse , full well knowing my ATM card was still contained within along with a sneaky $10 in the hidden compartment. And my name, written in the lining discretely.

I informed the principal yet again of my suspicions, but again, I was made to feel showy and a stupid girl for having said purse at school in the first place. I don’t even know to this day if this young lady was questioned but I do know, that afternoon, I found my ATM card discarded by a bin. A few streets up from the school. And my friends drifted away and formed a circle around the girl who now held my Glomesh purse.

I’ve never been able to buy another. It breaks my heart.