Important Possessions

[Artemis Windsong]

Parade Magazine had an article on possessions from a book written by Naomi Wax and Bill Shairo, What We Keep:  150 People Share the One Object That Brings them Joy, Magic, and Meaning. 

The main focus question:  Does everyone have on a possession that tells a remarkable story?

The story was timely.  I was at a family wedding this past weekend.  The father of the groom gave his son/DIL the motorcycle that belonged to the beloved Dad/grandfather.  Besides that, the motorcycle had 80,000 miles on it with a special paint job that was reserved for the Shriner's motorcycle group.

The thread is to get everyone thinking of the nostalgic, important items.

H. has a motel key that he has kept from before our time.  I asked about it and he wouldn't say.

I have 2 magnetic scotties that I played with as a child at my grandparents house.  They are something I like but wouldn't be heart broken if I didn't have them.  They were found when cleaning up an estate.

[Tennesseer]

Years ago, my mom made me a door chime?   A sturdy strip of dark green satin hung around the inside of the front door handle.  And then a strip of more satin hanging down the side of the inside door with bells sewn into it.

It was supposed to be used around Christmas time but I have it on the door year ripound for many years.  If nothing else, should someone uninvited come through the front door, the bells will announce their arrival.

[zibazinski]

I have my great grandma Clark’s baby quilts she made for me. One is for a boy and one is for a girl. Since I had one of each it worked out. They’re over 60 years old and if the house was on fire I’d save them and DH’s cat.

[billisonboard]

[steff]

2 quilts.  One made by my great gramma when I was born.   One made by my mamaw for my 16th birthday.  A hand painted tea set painted by my Big Momma (great gramma on my mom's side).  a doll that my gramma (my mom's mom) and Big Momma made for me (made one for all the granddaughters).  Big momma painted the hands and face, gramma made the bodies & the dress.  Mine was pink of course.  

[Tennesseer]

Sept 23, 2018 21:42:30 GMT -5 steff said:

2 quilts.  One made by my great gramma when I was born.   One made by my mamaw for my 16th birthday.  A hand painted tea set painted by my Big Momma (great gramma on my mom's side).  a doll that my gramma (my mom's mom) and Big Momma made for me (made one for all the granddaughters).  Big momma painted the hands and face, gramma made the bodies & the dress.  Mine was pink of course.  

House still pink?

[countrygirl2]

I have my first teddy bear, I was a year old, my betsy wetsie doll, must have been 4 or 5, its falling apart, my baby shoes are here somewhere.  Have my senior cord, when juniors and seniors when I was in high school, we made or had made cordurory skirts for the girls and cord pants for the boys, they had them painted. I was a pretty good artist back then and painted my own, I also sewed the skirt.  I have my band sweater.

Have a little book holder my dad made in high school.  Have sons baby shoes, I had DD's too, but not sure what happened to them, jeez. I have a cake plate of my paternal grandmother and the wedding table of my maternal grandmother. I have a ring and hairdryer my mom gave me in 8th grade.  Have a pillow hubs sent me from Ft Riley, Kansas when he was in the army during Vietnam. Have all our old love letters he wrote me from Vietnam, I had missed picking them up when we moved and the people that bought the house were kind enough to mail them to me so I still have them. I even have a couple of old Dick and Jane books but think I gave them to DIL. Oh I have a white knit scarf my great aunt and uncle bought me for my 8th birthday, I still wear it at times.  And some bowls I bought for my first set of dishes with $50 my dear old great uncle left me when he died.  I wanted something I would always remember him by, I still have them.  

I didn't realize I had kept so much stuff.

Hubs has my dads old Ford tractor, dad had bought it new, hubs still has it and uses it, he would not let it go for anything. He has some old tools of dads and now a lot of stuff his dad had.  

I think we are hoarders.

[steff]

Sept 23, 2018 21:44:58 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Sept 23, 2018 21:42:30 GMT -5 steff said:

2 quilts.  One made by my great gramma when I was born.   One made by my mamaw for my 16th birthday.  A hand painted tea set painted by my Big Momma (great gramma on my mom's side).  a doll that my gramma (my mom's mom) and Big Momma made for me (made one for all the granddaughters).  Big momma painted the hands and face, gramma made the bodies & the dress.  Mine was pink of course.  

House still pink?

Yes it is!   and the guest room is still painted pink with those prized possessions in it.  It's my girly room. 

[steff]

Sept 23, 2018 21:45:43 GMT -5 countrygirl2 said:

I have my first teddy bear, I was a year old, my betsy wetsie doll, must have been 4 or 5, its falling apart, my baby shoes are here somewhere.  Have my senior cord, when juniors and seniors when I was in high school, we made or had made cordurory skirts for the girls and cord pants for the boys, they had them painted. I was a pretty good artist back then and painted my own, I also sewed the skirt.  I have my band sweater.

Have a little book holder my dad made in high school.  Have sons baby shoes, I had DD's too, but not sure what happened to them, jeez. I have a cake plate of my paternal grandmother and the wedding table of my maternal grandmother. I have a ring and hairdryer my mom gave me in 8th grade.  Have a pillow hubs sent me from Ft Riley, Kansas when he was in the army during Vietnam. Have all our old love letters he wrote me from Vietnam, I had missed picking them up when we moved and the people that bought the house were kind enough to mail them to me so I still have them. I even have a couple of old Dick and Jane books but think I gave them to DIL. Oh I have a white knit scarf my great aunt and uncle bought me for my 8th birthday, I still wear it at times.  And some bowls I bought for my first set of dishes with $50 my dear old great uncle left me when he died.  I wanted something I would always remember him by, I still have them.  

I didn't realize I had kept so much stuff.

Hubs has my dads old Ford tractor, dad had bought it new, hubs still has it and uses it, he would not let it go for anything. He has some old tools of dads and now a lot of stuff his dad had.  

I think we are hoarders.

If you're a hoarder, then I'm a hoarder extreme edition.   I just listed the things I've always had in my head that I would grab in a fire.  I have dolls, china, tea sets, tea cups (my Big Momma's cup and saucer she used for 50+ years), quilts, carnival glass, knick knacks, probably over 100 cows in some form, and on and on and on.   lol 

[countrygirl2]

Oh there is more stuff, out of all those likely take hubs love letters, grandma's wedding table, dads book holder, one of the plates.  But then that leaves sons things and why don't I have more of DD's, I don't know, maybe because she has always been with us?  I kept lots of their baby things for years.

[steff]

oh crap, just remembered I have my mom's wedding dress in a cedar chest too! 

[Tennesseer]

I forgot one other item.  I am in possession of a study of Da Vinci's painting 'La Belle Ferronnière' my great-great uncle painted as an art student in Paris at the turn of the 20th century.  I would have to pull that out of the house.  I have seen the original at the Louvre and I cannot tell the two apart.


'La Belle Ferronnière'

[saveinla]

I have one baby blanket of my son, and a necklace from my sister who passed away, but nothing else.

[Apple]

When I called my son up this summer, to let him know he may have to evacuate while I was at work (a very large fire that was uncomfortably close to the house), I told him to take my laptop, portable hard drive, and the quilt top my great-grandfather made (that I plan to complete once I'm finished with one I'm working on for my parents).  The laptop was to make life easier in the event of a loss, so that I'd still have easy access to all my accounts, budget, etc, and the hard drive for the photos (which I have since been backing up with amazon prime), but the quilt was the "thing".

So, that quilt top.  There is also a hippo foot stool that had been my grandparent's that I'd want to take as well.  I have some things I really like, but most things are replaceable, these two really aren't.

[msventoux]

A couple of years ago when I thought I would have to evacuate I grabbed the pets, my laptop, phone and iPad. I would be devastated if I lost the pets, and the electronics would just make accessing my financial data easier.

I realized I really don’t have sentimental items. There’s no family heirlooms. I’ve scanned all of the pictures I have. My family was always practical and threw stuff away once it was at the end of its useful life. That made it hard after my mom passed away. There was no one thing that signified her life or that she truly treasured.

[cronewitch]

Not much, I have been burgled several time so lost most things like jewelry that were important to me. I collect cut glass and have 3 punch bowls i love but only one is sentmental. Other things I had moved to my iso house like ceramic pets that my great aunt made and my mom's ceramic dog. He wanted me to feel at home at his house.

[tractor]

I have so many items, it would take me the rest of the week to list them all. I think i’m the only sentimental one in my family, so everything ends up at my house.

[Gardening Grandma]

I have a photo of myself taken when I was 14. Also in the photo is a 16 year old girl. We were both wearing kimonos and were in her mother’s Japanese garden.
The photo would be unremarkable except for the fact that the other girl was the daughter of Captain Fujida,  the man who was the lead pilot of the attack on Pearl Harbor and my father was a sailor on the USS Utah that day.

[Artemis Windsong]

I have a lot of sentimental possessions.

My super slim jeans from when I was younger.

I moved the photo albums to the upper floor when our end of town was supposed to flood to the 2nd and 3rd floors.  All of the important papers were put in ziplock bags, put in our Prius and moved to high ground.  That happened twice.

Tatted bookmarks made by my xH's grandma. (I need to get one to my granddaughter who got married this past weekend.)  Two crocheted blanket and one quilt made from ancient clothing. Some of the squares would be from her first H's clothing.  A friend in quilting got the 2nd one from the 2nd hand store.  She is curator of fabrics for the state historical museum.  The bean pot that she mentally put her anguish in as a young woman alone on the prairie with 2 young daughters.

My DIL has the toddler shoes of one gramma.

 

My late Dad's mouse eaten teddy bear and his primer grammar books.  A wooden butter tub that has fallen apart.  A trunk.  I wish I would have kept the items that were in it. 

My late mother's dressing table and matching cedar chest (TV is on it).  The head board and dresser are gone.  Our dining room table was her mother's, my grandmother.

My son said to get rid of his smelly motorcycle jacket and the other coats.  Still have them in a garment bag with a contractor's trash bag tied over.  Also need to ditch the first marriage wedding junk.  Nobody wants it.

DD has my mother's two china sets.  One is wedgewood that I didn't know how valuable it was until she told me.  She collects china.  I have the real silver.  Replacements expensive.

When my late brother was struggling with cancer, I had him write down the adventures he had.  I asked for but haven't read them.

[happyhoix]

My great uncles carved a cherry tree on their farm into a hand made rope bedstead for my grandma and papa on my Dad's side. It was a wedding present for them. It's a wonky size (somewhere between full and queen, but about six inches shorter than it should be) and had to have a custom mattress made.

I would also want all the photo books with family pictures, plus the hand made rolling pin that my DH's grandfather made for his grandmother, also out of a cherry tree from their property. (What is it with us and cherry trees?)

[Tennesseer]

Sept 24, 2018 16:09:37 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

My great uncles carved a cherry tree on their farm into a hand made rope bedstead for my grandma and papa on my Dad's side. It was a wedding present for them. It's a wonky size (somewhere between full and queen, but about six inches shorter than it should be) and had to have a custom mattress made.

I would also want all the photo books with family pictures, plus the hand made rolling pin that my DH's grandfather made for his grandmother, also out of a cherry tree from their property. (What is it with us and cherry trees?)

Y'all must be descendants of Augustine and Mary Ball Washington. That is probably the only explanation.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

My grandmother's Chinese Lions  My grandfather bought them for her while he was stationed in Korea.  I would be really upset if I lost them because they cannot be replaced.

I have a massive  Christmas ornament collection since I was born in December.   No ornament in my collection is alike and each tells a story.

My nativity set.  Pieces of it belonged to my great grandmother, grandmother and mother.  All my sheep are gimps because overtime the legs have broken off  and are impossible to repair.

[zibazinski]

Sept 24, 2018 10:58:22 GMT -5 Gardening Grandma said:

I have a photo of myself taken when I was 14. Also in the photo is a 16 year old girl. We were both wearing kimonos and were in her mother’s Japanese garden.
The photo would be unremarkable except for the fact that the other girl was the daughter of Captain Fujida,  the man who was the lead pilot of the attack on Pearl Harbor and my father was a sailor on the USS Utah that day.

That is freakin awesome. I hope you donate it to a museum.

[cktc]

I'm bad about assigning sentimental value to things. None of it is of actual value or particularly special to the person it belonged to, but I love the little reminders. The ones I would be most concerned with saving are a little stuffed rabbit my great grandmother gave me when she was having a yard sale, and some outfits that belonged to my grandmother and late mother. I wish I had a piece of jewelry or some treasured household item, it would make it much easier to let all the little things go. Like I save old phones, corncob holders, junk jewelry, hair rollers, tupperware. It drives my DH crazy.

[happyhoix]

Sept 24, 2018 16:27:19 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Sept 24, 2018 16:09:37 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

My great uncles carved a cherry tree on their farm into a hand made rope bedstead for my grandma and papa on my Dad's side. It was a wedding present for them. It's a wonky size (somewhere between full and queen, but about six inches shorter than it should be) and had to have a custom mattress made.

I would also want all the photo books with family pictures, plus the hand made rolling pin that my DH's grandfather made for his grandmother, also out of a cherry tree from their property. (What is it with us and cherry trees?)

Y'all must be descendants of Augustine and Mary Ball Washington. That is probably the only explanation.

Intense animosity towards cherry trees. 

[happyhoix]

Sept 24, 2018 17:33:29 GMT -5 cktc said:

I'm bad about assigning sentimental value to things. None of it is of actual value or particularly special to the person it belonged to, but I love the little reminders. The ones I would be most concerned with saving are a little stuffed rabbit my great grandmother gave me when she was having a yard sale, and some outfits that belonged to my grandmother and late mother. I wish I had a piece of jewelry or some treasured household item, it would make it much easier to let all the little things go. Like I save old phones, corncob holders, junk jewelry, hair rollers, tupperware. It drives my DH crazy.

My mom had a big collection of 'stuff' like that, and when she had to downsize from her four bedroom house to a 1 bedroom condo, she couldn't bear to throw anything out. Everything had to go to one of her kids or grandkids, right down to the old whipped cream containers that had been in the dishwasher so many times they got waffled and the lids no longer fit,  and the 1960 set of encyclopedias.

It was murder for her to downsize her stuff....

[cktc]

Sept 24, 2018 18:01:23 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Sept 24, 2018 17:33:29 GMT -5 cktc said:

I'm bad about assigning sentimental value to things. None of it is of actual value or particularly special to the person it belonged to, but I love the little reminders. The ones I would be most concerned with saving are a little stuffed rabbit my great grandmother gave me when she was having a yard sale, and some outfits that belonged to my grandmother and late mother. I wish I had a piece of jewelry or some treasured household item, it would make it much easier to let all the little things go. Like I save old phones, corncob holders, junk jewelry, hair rollers, tupperware. It drives my DH crazy.

My mom had a big collection of 'stuff' like that, and when she had to downsize from her four bedroom house to a 1 bedroom condo, she couldn't bear to throw anything out. Everything had to go to one of her kids or grandkids, right down to the old whipped cream containers that had been in the dishwasher so many times they got waffled and the lids no longer fit,  and the 1960 set of encyclopedias.

It was murder for her to downsize her stuff....

That'll definitely be me someday. Were people happy enough to hang onto stuff for her or was it all bound for the trash?

[Deleted]

I have a quilt my Great Grandmother made. We lived with her until I was 7yo and I remember watching her make quilts. By the time I was a teenager, she'd stopped making them.

I've only had it maybe 4 or 5 years. I was so excited when my Mom called and said she'd found 2 of my Great Grandmother's quilts in my Grandmother's house and cleaned them and I could have one. It's not pretty, but I'd want to punch anyone that dared to say that to me lol. It's huge and heavy. It's also entirely possible that it's older than I am.

I also have one of my Grandmother's cast iron skillets. She gave it to me when I first moved out on my own. I rarely use it because I can't just throw it in the dishwasher but I'll never willingly get rid of it. I have dishes and kitchen gadgets she gave me, but I'm more sentimental about the skillet for some reason. My Grandmother was an awesome cook, it's too bad I didn't acquire her skills and love for cooking along with the other stuff.

[TheOtherMe]

I have a quilt my maternal grandmother made for me and gave to me when I was in kindergarten.  It is very special to have one because there are at least 50 grandchildren and only 3 of us received quilts from her.  She made them for us because we were named after her or Grandpa.  

I got my great great grandmother's quilt from my mom.  It is very special to me.

From my paternal grandmother, I have a strand of her imitation pearls and an apron.  If grandma wasn't dressed up to go out, she always wore an apron.  She almost always wore a strand of pearls.  I know they are not valuable, but I love them.

I have a porch swing my maternal grandfather made.

From my paternal grandfather, who died a month before I was born, I have his photo badge from the Naval base where he worked as a civilian during WWII.

Have things from my parents also.

[countrygirl2]

The stuff I have that is old, has no value, only to me I guess.


I have a couple of rings worth a few thousand dollars about it.  The guns are worth some money.