80s Dude

 Having once been married to one, I know that archaeologists and cultural anthropologists often date mysterious artifacts by comparing them to better known artifacts recovered from the same site. I still watch a lot of “ancient excavation” videos. So it isn’t surprising that on a recent pre-move visit to Raleigh, I began to excavate the ancient site known as the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet in my basement office, or “the nethermost drawer.” Much had been written about it, but scholars were unable, with any certainty, to discern which stories about its contents were myth and which had roots in historical fact. I decided to take the plunge and actually look into the drawer.

I was able to cleverly discern, largely from dates actually written on various documents, that these were actually documents created at various time during the 1980s CE. But then sandwiched between artifacts of which I had vague memories, I came across this image:

While it bore stylistic signatures of the current millennium, I had no recollection of having created this image. This was different from having no recollection of where we had dinner last week or where I put my car keys. Those are normal memory glitches that no longer bother me. This was a drawing - ostensibly mine. And I remember my drawings. Often where I was when I created them, sometimes what I was thinking when I created the drawing. Not that guy. No idea where it was created, who it was, what prompted it. All I knew was that it was created sometime, somewhere in the 1980s. All else was lost in the mists of that decade of long ago.

I was left with only one investigative option. Enlarge the image and color it. I did so and here is the result:

And now, gazing at it in this reconstructed form, I realize I still have no idea when or where I created the drawing. Or, a touch disconcerting, what I was thinking at the time. Still, coloring it was fun! I plan to apply for grants from The National Geographic Society and The National Science Foundation to continue my research at this unique and too often ignored site.