I really should clear out my desk drawers more frequently. Or maybe not. It is the season of memory, and it can be fun to conjure up some unexpected ones.

As I did recently when I reached into the back of a desk drawer in the bedroom to find what I thought was a wallet. Except that it wasn’t. Stamped inside are the words “Senior Leather Day-Timer.”

Examining it, I realized that in the early 1990s I used it neither as a wallet nor day-timer, but a receptacle into which I stuffed memos, receipts, membership cards, lottery tickets, and a British Rail ticket.

The Hospital Lottery, whose funds were used to purchase equipment for Civic and St. Joseph’s hospitals, was active here back in 1992.

I found 20 Hospital Lottery tickets in the day-timer. They cost a dollar each and promised great bonus prizes, such as a........

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