Items you own that have followed you through life

DXP55

DXP55

DXP55

Soldato
Joined
5 Aug 2013
Posts
6,834
Location
Shropshire
Came across a item I bought years and years ago.

I have lived in quite a few places - starting from 50's my second home was Bordsely Green -Cotteridge-Streetley -Bearwood - Harborne -these were with folks renting -Then I went to Moseley -Bearwood- Quinton -Then moved to Telford two places -then -Newport Shrop -and now Whitchurch.

In somewhere between 1954 and 1958 I went to Paris with school and I bought myself a Samurai sword -This has followed me to this day

The next item I bought in 1965 - I worked in office in centre of Brum and used to walk down New st most days and looking in Watches of Switzerland I saw this watch in window and thought that's for me -Asked mom and dad if they would fund me to buy it for my 21st -Yes they did -£21 - That watch was on my wrist for about 9 years and got abused - At that time I had no idea who Breitling were - In 1973 my new girfriend bought me a Seiko auto so Breitling went into a drawer for next 40 years. -In 2013 I sent it to USA to be cleaned and fixed - Watch maker has retired now but was the go to for all Breitling repairs/refurb on Breitling forum.

Next was a DIY thing - I scrounged two scrap pistons from works garage -One from a Morris diesel (large one) and the other is possibly from a Morris Minor.
The Jag I had given me because tail has broken off - so after cleaning everything up I screwed Jag to small piston and filled it with putty plumb - then filled big one with molten lead.
I stamped the year on bottom of jag one and it was 1972.

These three items have followed me since I purchased/made them.

Has anyone else got their own personal keepsakes. ?

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Some red bells I made for the Christmas tree when I was two and a half. They still go on the tree every year, right at the front.

The teddy bear I won at the Harlow Town Show when I was six or seven. He lives in our bed, between our pillows.
 
A football scarf that was bought for me when I was 3-4 years old, not a team I like but I’ve kept it.
A darts trophy I won as a kid, probably about 40 years ago lol.
A bike spanner I got with my Grifter….comes in handy sometimes.

Just realised I’m a bit of a hoarder, I have quite a few things I’ll keep forever.
 
I can't think of much. I try not to let clutter follow me around. But there are a couple of things that sit in a cupboard. One is a small solid silver sculpture (hard to describe) that my uncle made and gave to me. He was a goldsmith (not just a jeweller but designed and made jewellery, often winning awards). I've had that since I was a little kid in the 1970's.

More recently, early 2000's, I inherited my father's police whistle. This is a proper old, quite long, metal whistle that looks like it should be in a museum or in a scene from Jack The Ripper. It's quite battered and it clearly wasn't new when my father was issued it. It has only been in my possession for ~20 years but I obviously saw it and played with it many times as a kid.

About 5 or 6 years ago I bought a used Omega Speedmaster "moonwatch". It's a limited edition anniversary model with specific engraving on the back which differs very slightly from the normal Speedmaster engraving and commemorates the first moon walk (21st July) rather than the first moon landing (20th July). It's more meaningful to me because I was born during the moonwalk. I haven't had it long yet but it's an item I will never sell and it will be passed down to my son for it to travel through life with him when the time comes.
 
The only things I have from when I was a kid are, my dads cufflinks and my mums hand made cross for a necklace. These are very special to me as one pair of cufflinks was worn by my dad and the cross by my mum when they both were killed in a car accident when I was 7. The cufflinks were bent and damaged in other ways from the accident. If I remember i'll grab a photo and post it up.

The other thing (thrown away a few years ago) was a bath towel my gran and grandad got me when I went to live with them after the accident. It was a yellow and pink stripped one. It was frayed, had holes in it. Got to say though, had some use. I am guessing it was around 28 years old when I binned it
 
I have a teddy bear i‘ve had since i was about 8? It’s one of the few things and the only toy that survive and i took with me from moving here.
 
Not materialistic, but instead - a song. It's by Baby D (famous for Let Me Be Your Fantasy) and the song in question is called Daydreaming. Track no.8 on their album called Deliverance. I bought it in April 1996, aged 17.

To this very day, Deliverance remains my all-time favourite album. Every track is pretty solid (in my opinion). The problem for me is that Daydreaming begins with a dial tone, sounds like when you're using a keypad on a telephone. Because I'm affected by synaesthesia, the dial tone sound induces a bad trip, especially when played at night time or if it comes up on random/shuffle. It has become phobic and I get a recurring nightmare every year in the Spring time (usually from April until June) where I hear that dial tone. I'm now 43 and I still get the nightmare. When the beat and bass kicks in though, it becomes a perfectly normal dance/house track and I give it 5 out of 5. The rest of the Baby D album is in their more familiar jungle style f music.

That said, I have seen Baby D perform in concert. They didn't play Daydreaming, but I don't think I would have minded because I would have been in the middle of a crowd with plenty of visuals / lasers to distract me.
 
A few limited run music VHS & LP's that must be 30+ years old but other than those I tend not to keep much stuff (generally). I will consistently however buy something, use it 3-4 times, "store it" and then 10 years later "re-find it" and go "why the hell have I got this thing" and get rid of it, so like a rolling decade long spring clean of random tat I suppose which prevents my collecting too much too term stuff.
 
A pressure cooker from the first time I left home 20 years ago is still with me and being used (mostly as a brining pot now mind)
 
Just my diary from the ages 18-21 (I read it once a year to remind myself how far I have come), and a memento photo album thing that my best friends made for me when I moved from SA to the UK.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I have a teddy bear i‘ve had since i was about 8? It’s one of the few things and the only toy that survive and i took with me from moving here.
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Yeah same. I’ve had mine since I was christened and I used him as a pillow for many years. He’s pretty tatty nowadays. I keep him safe so he won’t get any worse, plus I might be a little for sleeping with a teddy…
 
I must be dead inside as I'm not at all that nostalgic about stuff and use the chance of moving to get rid of stuff. My parents kept boxes of my old stuff from childhood (I'm in my 40s) when they left the UK I took those boxes to the dump.
 
When i was younger i looked forward to having a place filled with junk/stuff, but as time went on and after some travelling i found i'd really love to just have not much and a bare flat. Though now i have a house i've kept all my junk/stuff, but having a garden is fun.

Saved some bits from the car boot my parents did, wooden crocodile letter opener, a garden concrete donkey, etc. Have old PC game boxes and PS1 games as well as CDs, retro bike parts, essentially all junk.
 
We're in the process of getting rid of stuff collected over the last few decades. It can be painful but we had the 'what the **** would our son do with all this stuff if something happened to us?' and the answer is that he would probably just have a house clearance company in so we might as well make a start now.
 
I have a Christmas decoration for the table which I made aged 7 in the Brownies. It comes out every year. It's my Trigger's Broom. Had the tinsel replaced about 4 times and the candle (never lit) 7 times.

Still use my Mickey Mouse egg spoon when I have a boiled egg and that's a year younger than me.
 
A sheaffer fountain pen I was given in 1962 to go to school. It still writes but I don't use it regularly.
 
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