One item of significance that you have had forever?

[Jay1982]

I was just wondering if you people had any little item of significance, be it sentimental heirloom or just something you held onto from your childhood or something have had for a really long time or whatever. I just find the little things in life very interesting, and the little objects people tend to keep even moreso. So, If you peeps could go so far as to explain what your item is, where you got it and why it holds signifigance for you too, that would be cool.

My item would have to be a miniature replica section picture of a John Constable painting which was gifted to me by my teacher in school when I was just 6 and 1/2 years old. It was awarded to me for being a good little boy, but at the time all I wanted as a reward was some new shiny pencils that all the other good kids were being gifted for good behavior. here's a pic of it..



..and here's the back, upon which my mother proudly wrote a description of my achievement..



and now it's over to you

[Minimalist]

You're excluding various body parts, I assume?

[Jay1982]

You're excluding various body parts, I assume?

Well, I was kinda hoping we could keep it to inanimate objects or trinkets, but i'm not averse to people offering up their body parts as their item, so no, there are no exclusions. Go for the gusto

[Erinome]

I got this guy when I was 2 years old, and it might just look like an old Popple, but it was much more than that. I thought I was crazy as fuck, but apparently what I used my popple for is quite normal in a sense. As a victim of severe abuse, I used popple as a sort of silent ally. Whenever my stepdad would get done beating me and leave the room, I would spend an hour or so talking to popple, trying to convince popple not to murder my stepfather. His ears knew all my secrets, and his puffy ball tail was magical and dried all of my tears.



I still sleep with him.

[thesummerqueen]

My family is full of weird little trinkets and things. Unfortunately the three things passed down to me that might be the most valuable aren't here. I have a china teapot and a china teacup that were my grandmother's, and a fine pearl necklace that was my great-grandmother's, currently residing in my mother's much more secure home.

I also have recipes from both women, and my aunt and my mother, which makes a thread of culinary continuity that I really like.

We have tons of pictures in boxes and artwork and needlework and all sorts of shit my aunt has squirreled away, but sometimes she sends us little boxes of things. I love history, and my family is so closed-mouthed to each other that any physical "evidence" I get of my past is precious.

I submit to you something my uncle wrote to their beagle "Snoopy" while at summer camp when he was very young:



And my aunt:



I spent the better part of a week going through two boxes of photos and slides and old letters. As much as the china and pearls, they're very valuable to me, and probably the only thing my mother and I can have extended conversations on. Like this one of my great-grandfather, Rufus Cohen, who played trumpet (which my uncle still has) in a speakeasy during Prohibition:

[Erinome]

That's too adorable!

[Rev. Rye]

I still sleep with him.

I'm something of a pack rat, and I find it hard to part with a lot of things; but two toys really stick out in my mind; one of them is a teddy bear that I wound up calling Nial (apparently after some Gulf War general whose name I overheard while I was barely verbal; my guess is that he's Niall Irving), and a white rabbit with a rattle I called Puffy (after the company that made it: Puffalump. Yes, even then I could read the tags.) For much of my childhood, partially as a result of my love of these toys, I had a love for collecting stuffed animals which I seem to have displaced for a love of collecting books, music, and DVDs. But those two have a specific hold on me: they've been with me since I could remember, and when I was a kid, when the kids in my grade school seemed to be so unpredictable that I couldn't count on them, I knew that I could count on them. For some reason, my core group had two additions: a stuffed sheep (non-anthropomorphised) I called "Peesh", and a replica of Teddy Bean from Mr. Bean. For years I would sleep with them in my bed, and even though I now usually sleep solo, I still keep them under my bed in a small collapsible laundry basket, always keeping the option open to put them back in bed if I'm particularly scared shitless at bedtime by something. Even when I'm on vacation, I usually pack them, even if I only break them out once.

I don't have a photo of them, but for the first two:
http://www.aliviastoys.com/puffalumps/pu...imals.html
Nial is 1368 and Puffy is 1359.

No sign of what make Peesh is.

[Erinome]

I had a Puffalump too! The puppy one.

[Jay1982]

I don't mean to get all misty eyed here, "heaven" knows I am not very sensitive at the best of times, I never cry at movies or tv, no matter how well made the productions are, (though I have came close a few times mind), but REAL emotion never fails to give me a lump in my throat, and IMHO there is no truer honesty of feeling than that which is displayed when someone shares the story of their treasured childhood possessions.

I just get taken aback a bit by the honesty of feeling that people display when they talk about and reminisce about remnants from their childhood or any object which holds historical significance to them, I don't know why. I guess it just reminds me of myself and my youth, the innocence and the adoration of the only things I could truly relate to back then, my toys

[orogenicman]

"Dear Mom:

I forgot to tell you I saw Armstrong take his step on the Moon".

You mean she was there???