Getting ready to go out for supper, I scan my emerald green plate of colourful earrings.
asserted
I → get → earrings
The setting sun is streaming in the window, shining on the pretty enamelled Norwegian platter from the same vintage as my well-crafted clip-ons.
asserted
sun → set → ons
The oldest sparkly pair were made in 1938 and are still sturdy in 2026.
asserted
pair → make → 2026
I choose three pairs; trying each to see which goes with my plain outfit.
asserted
which → choose → outfit
I have never been a “fashion plate,” as my favourite Aunt Dorothy used to call a well-dressed woman, but with the right pick from my plentiful stash, I feel like one.
asserted
I → use → one
When I asked a stylish friend to finish the sentence, she thought for a moment, laughed and said: “Garbage.
asserted
she → ask → Garbage
Old clip-on earrings are the new GARBAGE.”
asserted
earrings → clip → ?
My friend is not alone in her assessment — but clip-ons have become a generational selection.
asserted
ons → become → assessment
While they may strike many Boomers as a useless relic from the past, 21st century Millennials and GenZers are hunting and mining them in vintage shops.
uncertain
Millennials → strike → shops
Like them, and unlike many in my Boomer cohort, I see old clip-ons as ornate treasures created by forgotten artisans.
Having long ago opted for hole-free lobes — not a hill I want to die on, as I know I’m in the smallest minority but the idea of poking holes in my head never appealed — friends and family members have frequently gifted me interesting clip-on earrings found in garage sales and thrift shops.
asserted
friends → see → sales
I have found a few caches myself in second-hand stores, usually piled in a lidless cardboard container at the back corner of a shelf with a handwritten sign: Clip-Ons $2.
asserted
Ons → find → sign
I have acquired an inspiring collection.
asserted
I → acquire → collection
Though some may see this costume jewelry as cheap and old, the pieces can be uncommonly well-made and highly-detailed despite being hewn from humble materials such as iridescent, brightly-coloured glass, glittering rhinestones, inexpensive base-metal, Lucite and Bakelite plastics.
uncertain
pieces → see → glass
Many clip-on earrings were made in an era when talented 20th Century designers and creators produced quality workmanship — even for low-cost jewelry.
asserted
designers → clip → jewelry
The average women who wore them were not delicate waifs.
asserted
who → wear → them
The well-remembered hardships and lessons of World War II and the Great Depression were not far behind the resourceful women of the era.
asserted
hardships → remember → era
They did not have washers and driers and other modern conveniences.
asserted
They → have → washers
They may have had economic pressures and adverse conditions, but they still enjoyed the fun feel of wearing a bit of glitter on occasion.
uncertain
they → have → occasion
The mid 20th Century trend featured dramatic costume jewelry; ready to throw on for the rare night out to bingo or bowling or bopping.
asserted
trend → feature → bingo
Television moms like Mrs. Leave-it-to-Beaver Cleaver, along with legions of North American moms and grade school teachers, wore matching necklace and clip-on earring sets.
asserted
moms → leave → sets
My mother always wore her pretty clip-ons to Sunday mass or out with “the girls” for O-K-O — a popular French Canadian board game played at each other’s homes in the 1960s.
asserted
mother → wear → 1960s
I am not sure how she afforded it, but when her six kids were in elementary grades, my stay-at-home mother of a working-class family in Verdun, a lower income suburb of Montreal, would on occasion give a teacher a small gift of appreciation at the end of the school year.
asserted
Verdun → afford → year
It was usually a blue box, a little bigger than a slice of white bread, containing a matching set of clip-on earrings and a necklace, laid out on a thin swatch of pristine cotton batting.
asserted
It → contain → batting
When I think about the Cold War era workers who made solid little clip-ons, worn by armies of nameless women, I am reminded of the tiny spring-loaded clip, that applies pressure to hold the earring in place.
asserted
that → think → place
It is often solid and reliable and indestructible, and still they fabricated what fancy, rainbow fragments — and their hardwearing output is still in use.
Lesley Stahl, renowned journalist of “60 Minutes” fame, wears stunning clip-on earrings.
asserted
Stahl → fabricate → earrings
She chooses quality costume jewelry even though she could well afford the real thing in icy big-name bling.
uncertain
she → choose → bling
In Marilyn Monroe’s day, bold and sturdy clip-ons went with the red-red lipstick fashion of the era; she did not have pierced ears — the glamorous icon wore clip-ons.
asserted
icon → go → ons
Clip-on earrings may be an insignificant example in a world economy, but they may have something to teach us about our disposable mindset.
uncertain
they → clip → mindset
Within weeks of purchase, the stem broke off one of my modern, whimsical, red and white mushroom-shaped, clip-on earrings that cost me $36!
asserted
that → break → 36
Unlike my clip-ons, they are junk and are going to the landfill.
asserted
they → go → landfill
We bemoan the poor quality of 21st Century fridges, dishwashers, printers, toasters, irons, computers.
asserted
We → bemoan → Century
Perhaps we should be asking whether we can afford to continue sending the scraps of our new, low-quality products to landfill.
asserted
we → ask → landfill
Old clip-on earrings, still found in the attic and in second-hand stores, are a good reminder of the value of quality.
asserted
earrings → clip → quality
The Aporia
