Unsolved Mystery: SOLVED!

A long time ago, back when S was a baby, I stored my secret knitting projects (the first Christmas stockings) in The Bar.  The Bar is a piece of furniture that belonged to M's parents and it really is a bar.  The top flips open to reveal a counter top and the insides open to show places to store bottles and hang glasses.

The Bar with a cute blue-eyed boy: June 2005

The best part about storing my secret knitting projects in The Bar was that it locked with a neat old-fashioned key.  I tied a piece of white yarn on the key and kept it safe in a giant barnacle that used to sit on our mantel.  Until it disappeared (after Christmas luckily).  And my knitting supplies were locked in The Bar, including a sweater I had started for S.  This was late 2003, early 2004.

I looked for that key forever.  I had no idea where it went.  I knew I put it someplace safe, but it was so safe I forgot where it was.  And I felt really bad for losing the key to M's parent's bar.  Finally, in 2006, A decided to try and break into The Bar with a butter knife.  We were afraid she would break the bar, so M decided if anyone was going to break it, it would be him.  He succeeded, releasing the sweater that I was just in time to finish before S grew out of it.  I used that bar to hold my craft stuff for years and still do.  But the key never surfaced, even when we packed up and moved here.  I figured it was gone forever if I couldn't find it when we moved!

We have a box stashed away somewhere that is labeled "Keys."  No one knows what these keys go to.  We tried all the old looking keys, and none of them would work with The Bar.  Why we even keep this box of keys is beyond me.  I bet they would make an interesting art project someday.

Today, while in a serious nesting mood, I got on M's case about getting certain areas of the house ready for the new baby: turning the playroom into a bedroom, turning his dad's room into storage...a lot needs to be done to shift our things around and I'm not getting any less pregnant.  While cleaning out a drawer from Grandad's room, I found a tangle of old string and laces.  I almost threw the entire mess away, until I spied a penny taped to what I thought was an old bootlace.  Someone had a lucky penny taped there for a reason.  And no one knows why, which made me sad.  The next tangle of string was a macrame-type bracelet beginning.  And the third tangle was a dirty piece of white yarn.......with a key tied to it.

And it is the key to The Bar!!!

How it got back down here and buried in Grandad's things will always be a mystery.  It almost seems like magic.  But the mystery of where the key is has been solved.  And I can lock my secrets in the bar again!