Souvenirs and Memorabilia

[JustinHayward 10]

People collect all kinds of unusual and wierd things - but what is the "strangest" souvenir or heirloom you own ??

[Micah 16]

Well, although a grandfather clock isn't weird, it is weird that ever since we obtained it back in '96, we still haven't used it. It's so old that pieces of it are falling off even though no one is touching it! We just wake up one morning with an old glued on piece on the floor.

[brancra 1,060]

Body parts. 'Nuff said.

[Firebird 40]

A black cat. 

[JustinHayward 10]

Fire bird - what is strange or unusual about a black cat ??? Unless it has 6 legs or something ???

[Meg 368]

I don't know how strange it is but I have my grandfather's bloodstained WWI uniform.

[toxicpiano 125]

Originally posted by: SkiGeek I don't know how strange it is but I have my grandfather's bloodstained WWI uniform.quote>

Wow. Did he die (sorry sort of touchy subject, dont mean to be rude)in that or was it an injury? That reminds me, I have a round box (Well sort of container), which was made by my Grandfather from wood taken from WWI aircraft.

[thesonofgray 0]

Tens of thousands of dollars worth of collectible coins.  And a sword used in the U.S. civil war.

Not that I'm waiting to cash in or anything.

[Meg 368]

Originally posted by: toxicpiano

Originally posted by: SkiGeek I don't know how strange it is but I have my grandfather's bloodstained WWI uniform.quote>

Wow. Did he die (sorry sort of touchy subject, dont mean to be rude)in that or was it an injury? That reminds me, I have a round box (Well sort of container), which was made by my Grandfather from wood taken from WWI aircraft.quote>

 

He was wounded in the Argonne Forest, spent a month in a hospital over there, and was sent home.  It was after that he got married and had his kids, including my father.

I checked "The Big Red One" memorial in DC.  It lists those who died, not those who were wounded, which makes sense.   It's a cool memorial.  It has the engraved names but in the middle of the park they plant a bunch of tulips in the shape a 1.

[JustinHayward 10]

Skigeek

I see nothing strange in that, - I have a whole load of military stuff that belonged to my grandfather - I have his original WW1 brass tobacco box - its dated Christmas 1914, and I believe they were issued to the British soldiers that were about to leave for the battlefields of France and Belgium - my grandfather was one of the lucky ones who fought on the poppyfields of Flanders - he came back badly scarred ......... but alive.

[Ratieya455 1]

I have the Casio scientific calculator my mom used in high school. From around 1979.

[Duke87 1,070]

Two things, really:

1) old dregs and shards of electronics that I've ripped apart. Ruined circuit boards, all the fuses and stuff I tore off of them, the shells to an old computer from my dad's office, and all the peices to it, including the disembodied keys from the keyboard, the ribbon from the printer, etc., everything except the tube from the monitor, which my dad insisted on disposing of safely due to its extreme fragileness.

2)Thousands upon thousands of baseball cards, most of which used to be my grandfather's. I've got some really obscure and/or weird stuff in there too. A box of a set of 30 or Toys-R-Us cards from ca. 1990. A bunch of miniature cards from the 80's. A giant 1985 Topps card. A few uncut factory fresh sheets from 1990. Some cards from companies that no one's ever heard of and only were around for a few years. An unopened complete set of 1993 Topps Black Gold.

Most of it's just a whole ton of common cards, though, the oldest dating back to 1970, but most being from the 80's or 90's. I know there are a few years for which I have the complete set several times over.

My grandfather had a bit of a money-spending issue. Then, after 2004, he stopped buying cards altogehter since he was running out of room to keep them. Last Fall, he moved out of his house into an apartment with a lot ess room. As such, some of all the old junk he had lying around got thrown away, but a lot of it got unloaded on various family memebers. Since I'm the only other one in the family that cares about Baseball Cards, I ended up with all the doubles and random junk of it he had in boxes (more than 90% of the cards he owned, I'm sure). He kept the sets that he had organized and in binders, and all of his really old cards which were in a display case.

He had a big hoarding issue (likely where I get it from, heh). He, like me, is the type to never throw anything away.

[Firebird 40]

Originally posted by: JustinHayward Fire bird - what is strange or unusual about a black cat ??? Unless it has 6 legs or something ??? quote>

Yep, six legs, 14 eyes, and was mutated on a night that had a blue moon in the sky.

[dev 47]

WOW...where do I start...I have a whole shelf of this sort of stuff...let's see...

• "Hello My Name Is" tags that were made by different people and put on me on my birthday last year while working in Biloxi for hurricane relief.
• A Mason jar full of Hurricane Ivan rainwater.
• Tic Tacs from Mexico, naranja flavor.
• Grace juice bottle I drank from on the stroke of midnight on 1/1/2005, as well as confetti from the party.
• Party hat and confetti from 1/12006
• Lists of supplies that people requested in Biloxi during Hurricane Relief.

• Official seating chart for the Alabama House Of Representatives...(used while working as a page)
• $150 of shredded cash
• My LIVEstrong bracelet packaging and reciept...lol
• My award winning speeches.
• Confetti from a concert...(Newsboys)

TONs of other stuff...that was just some random stuff I thought I'd mentioned...

ALSO...I have every receipt of everything I've ever bought in a box.

As well as all of my ticket stubs, ever.

lol.

[beebs 129]

Originally posted by: dev WOW...where do I start...I have a whole shelf of this sort of stuff...let's see...

• "Hello My Name Is" tags that were made by different people and put on me on my birthday last year while working in Biloxi for hurricane relief.
• A Mason jar full of Hurricane Ivan rainwater.
• Tic Tacs from Mexico, naranja flavor.
• Grace juice bottle I drank from on the stroke of midnight on 1/1/2005, as well as confetti from the party.
• Party hat and confetti from 1/12006
• Lists of supplies that people requested in Biloxi during Hurricane Relief.

• Official seating chart for the Alabama House Of Representatives...(used while working as a page)
• $150 of shredded cash
• My LIVEstrong bracelet packaging and reciept...lol
• My award winning speeches.
• Confetti from a concert...(Newsboys)

TONs of other stuff...that was just some random stuff I thought I'd mentioned...

ALSO...I have every receipt of everything I've ever bought in a box.

As well as all of my ticket stubs, ever.

lol.quote>

Just a bit of a packrat are we?

I don't really collect much. I have a bunch of old coins, uh... movie posters, but that only makes sense since I work at a movie theater. Uh... We have a bunch of table cloths that my great-grandma had/made. We only use one or two regularily, since they are in pretty good shape.

[JustinHayward 10]

and I thought I was a bit of a hoarder - I have a long ways to go to catch Dev and a few others and Dev - I too have virtually every reciept of everything I ever bought

[TheCrybKeeper 276]

A set of billiard balls from 1929.

A complete set of encyclopedias from 1949(the first word I looked up was rocket).

An original WWII, army issued, Zippo lighter, with the date 1939 on the bottom of it.

Baseball cards, Coins, Many many books and Bibles.

[MrCinatit 30]

I've four certified meteorite fragments, including one which originated from the moon (these are very rare). 

several thousand baseball cards, ranging from 1887 until present. I have about 40 percent of a 1933 Goudey card set, and complete sets from 1968 until 1992, when i stopped collecting newer sets. a year ago, i sampled about 250 of my better cards and found their worth totaled a little more than 100 thousand dollars. 

i will never sell them, because i collect them for the sport, not the monitary value.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: dev

A Mason jar full of Hurricane Ivan rainwater. quote>

Given into that craze that started on ebay, have we?

Official seating chart for the Alabama House Of Representatives...(used while working as a page) quote>

Purpose of that?

 

$150 of shredded cashquote>

I seriously hope you mean official governemnt decomissioned cahs and not cash you shredded yourself... cuz that would be illegal.

My LIVEstrong bracelet packaging and reciept...lolquote>

Still clinging to yesterday's fashions, are we?

ALSO...I have every receipt of everything I've ever bought in a box.

As well as all of my ticket stubs, ever. quote>

I never keep my receipts... but I do have several ticket stubs that I've kept for the hell of it. Baseball games and Football games, mostly, but I also have several movie ticket stubs kept ony because I left them in my pocket after the movie, later discovered them there, and threw them in my drawer rather than throw them away...

[JustinHayward 10]

MrC

Thats a nice collection !!! Geology is an interest of mine - I would LOVE to own "a piece of the moon"

Is your card collection really worth over 100 big ones ??? Wow - thats some inheritance to leave to yer kids !!

[mayormommy 8]

My strangest item is a bouquet of artificial flowers that a friend of my grandmother's made in South Padre Island, Texas. What makes them a little odd is that the petals are red drum fish scales, from her husband's fishing trips.  I suspect no one in my office knows what they really are.

I also collect swizzle sticks from bars and do not disturb signs from hotels. 

[marryescher 0]

I used to collect barf bags from airplanes, but I only have 1 now. Most of them got wet in a small flood in the basement.

Also, I used to collect stuffed animals, but again, the flood in the basement ruined a couple hundred, then I gave away most of them. Now I mainly collect stuffed giraffes and zebras. 

I collect newspapers from when a major event took place somewhere in the world, and the headline is real big on the front page of my local newpaper.

Not very exciting, but I have a guitar pick that Rick Nielson from Cheap Trick threw into the audience.

I have a brochure from a 1976 Dodge Apsen wagon my family bought, that is one of my favorite mementos. That car was a total lemon, but I loved  that car.

[Bach2Baroque 168]

Yeah, airplanes barf bags are so classy, now i know im not the only one collecting them.

--

I collect rocks from countries i've visited, and have them line up on a shelf.

And i got this awsome rock from my teacher back in 5th grade. It looks like its wrapped in aluminum foil, but when you break it in pieces, it still looks wrapped in foil.

[dev 47]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Originally posted by: dev

A Mason jar full of Hurricane Ivan rainwater. quote>

Given into that craze that started on ebay, have we?

Official seating chart for the Alabama House Of Representatives...(used while working as a page) quote>

Purpose of that?

 

$150 of shredded cashquote>

I seriously hope you mean official governemnt decomissioned cahs and not cash you shredded yourself... cuz that would be illegal.

My LIVEstrong bracelet packaging and reciept...lolquote>

Still clinging to yesterday's fashions, are we?

ALSO...I have every receipt of everything I've ever bought in a box.

As well as all of my ticket stubs, ever. quote>

I never keep my receipts... but I do have several ticket stubs that I've kept for the hell of it. Baseball games and Football games, mostly, but I also have several movie ticket stubs kept ony because I left them in my pocket after the movie, later discovered them there, and threw them in my drawer rather than throw them away...quote>

Heh...eBay gave me the idea.

The seating chart was just a random thing to throw in to my listing...

I actually wore my LIVEstrong bracelet for what it stood for...not for the fashion trend...it snapped last week...so it is now retired...I would like to get a new one though.

I also have a lot of baseball cards...haven't looked in to them in a while...but last time I checked my most valuable one was a Randy Johnson rookie card...can't remember how much it was worth though.

Come to think of it I also have some random USA todays from major events...As well as any newspaper clippings that have me in them.

A couple years ago I was quite a Matchbox fanatic and would buy any cool looking car out there...I wasn't in to the Fantasy stuff...but I have about 200 "real" model Matchbox cars...As well as about half of the "Matchbox Across America" 50 states cars.  They are all in mint condition...a good few unopened...so those might do well eventually.

Movie posters too...about 20 of them.

I like to have random things.

[Vandy 110]

Hi, All.

Hmmm.  Of all the things that I have either collected (read: packrat!), have had given to me or passed down to me, etc. the ONE thing that stands out as the (please forgive my changing the subject a bit) most important heirloom I have been given is my grandson, Tyler.

Through him, my father's line will continue through at least another generation and through him rests eight generations of our family.  God bless him and keep him throughout his life.

Regards,

Vandy

[Boggy1 45]

Well, my mum is the REAL horder in my house. My grandmother was too. She insited we keep even the CARPETS from her old house. I think its probably because her family were very very poor, and had to keep moving everywhere, and alot of them died young, and stuff like that. She was very very good at keeping money. Never bought anything unless she needed it. Thats probably why we are quite wealthy (not meaning to boast) now. We always save.

But anyway, the weirdest thing that I have is the last ever piece of coal dug up by my grandfather on his last ever shift before the coal mine closed down.

[JustinHayward 10]

"I like to have random things. "

You sound like a pretty random kinda guy Dev :-)

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Over a lifetime you tend to accumulate a lot of stuff.

I have my great-uncles cap badge from the Spanish American war.  He was a U.S. Marine.

I have my grandparents birth certificates issued by the English registry offices.  These are for my father's parents.

I have my WW II Border Crossing Card from when I was a little kid.  It is a photo-ID from about 1942, when I would have been 5 years old.

[mattc005 2]

Well, I have my two of my dad's old yearbooks (circa 1971 and 72), a few large books (Including a 2000 page, 15 pound "Pictoral History of Ontario" ), and some metals from my grandfather who was in the navy during WWII.

The "strangest" one though is acctually kind of cool with a long story behind it. It's a ring with a rock embedded in it which has a picture of a tree in a meadow. The rock was found by a worker when he was building the Panama Canal. He gave it to my great-grand-father because he owed him money, and my grandmother had it put in a ring sometime in the 1960's or 70's. It's supposed to be a charm from some sort of bracelet belonging to an ancient Aztec Princess.

[Joesocwork 4]

This is an heirloom that has been passed down several generations that I hope my dad doesn't bequeath to me.  We call it "the monster chair" and I remember my brothers and I being afraid of it when were children as our dad said that he and  his father were when they were children.