Here’s what driving carpool really means: the floors of your car fill up with food remains, the seams of your seats darken with embedded crumbs, the windows smudge over with the residue of sticky/sweaty foreheads, noses, lips and fingers, the air sours with the lingering odor of left-behind articles of clothing peeled off while wet, half-sucked candy inefficiently rewrapped and hidden in the handy little storage trove on the rear passenger door, right above the door handles, greets you when reach for a grocery bag. There you will also find last Halloween’s Tootsie Rolls, already-chewed gum, used Kleenex, torn Twix wrappers, tiny plastic ducks and whatever else was once held in a grimy or sweaty hand.
Sometimes you find a treasure in the trove – I recently unearthed a tiny origami love message to my son on what once was a 1” yellow sticky note.