Do you have stuff from your childhood?
Or, what's the oldest thing of yours that you still have? Not old as in absolute time, I mean from your lifetime.
In these days of clearing clutter, what do you hold on to? I have very little. The "oldest" things I have are a couple of books from my early teens.
Mostly this was because my parents moved to another country when I was a teenager, so we got rid of everything. Then, our house was sold after my Mom died and I didn't get a chance to get my stuff out.
My parent held on to some of my baby stuff, so I've got that stuff. Cup, blanket, chew toy (wait, I guess for humans they call them teething rings.)
I have several handicraft items knitted for me by my grandmother -- one was a crochet rug (with my name in it) for my dollhouse. The other is a crochet clown. Both were made for me when I was about 3-4 years old.
I have a stuffed animal (Benji the dog) from about the same time period.
Most of the stuff I had when I was a real baby was left behind when my parents brought me to the US.
I have a bracelet and necklace set that my Dad bought me when I was about 7 or 8. *smiles* too small to wear, and the silver's gone a bit rank lol. But it's there...at the bottom of a little box. Underneath the bits and pieces. I have a very battered (but still with it's dust cover!) copy of the complete Sherlock Holmes, and a complete works of Shakespeare...somewhere...not quite sure...think they may be down at J's house. I had to store bits and pices with other people when I moved in here. They were both childhood acquisitions. I think I may have been about 10 or 11 when I got Sherlock. Maybe 12 for Shakespeare. Most books I off-loaded. But Sherlock, Shakespeare and my autographed copy of The Crucible, I kept.
A teddy bear from the early 60's or 50's. And a bunch of other little stuff, toys mostly. Another Whinney the Pooh Bear I got when I was 6 or 7.
Scattered around everywhere, I still have probably every book I ever owned. Except for my Nancy Drew my brother ran over with his moped and tore right down the spine ( I was laying out in the sun on a blanket and had laid the book down in an open position. Brother thought it'd be funny to buzz me and try to scare me since I was half asleep.) I gave that book to him a couple years ago at Christmas. He couldn't believe I'd kept it. I still give him crap about that.
We've all got baggage from our childhood. :haha:
The dollhouse my dad built for me for X-mas when I was five, complete with furnishings. I re-painted it and gave it to Princess for X-mas when she was five. Also the locket my grandpa bought for me the day I was born.
We've all got baggage from our childhood. :haha:
True dat.
I don't know why, but I've been lugging a plaster casting of a dinosaur footprint with my (tiny) handprint on the back, circa age 4.5.
Also, my childhood teddy bear that got me through many a scary night.
Dunno why I keep these two things around, I'm not particularly sentimental. But there they are, forever, I suppose.
I have an afghan my mom crocheted me way back when. It's now usually in the living room or sometimes one of the kids' rooms.
Depending on how you interpret "childhood," you might also consider my high school class ring, and my Phi Beta Kappa key, neither of which I wear, but are both packed away safely and are really the only mementos of my school days I've kept.
I had a large trunk in my room starting in the 2nd grade, and I've got lots of childhood treasures in there.
Yeah, I've got probably two dozen toys and knick-knacks. It's all small stuff though, about 3 shoeboxes' worth of space.
My genes are pretty old. Had 'em as long as I can remember.
The only thing I have is the wristband from my birth.
I finally parted with a couple items in my 30's. Now I have boxes of my kid's kid stuff!:smack:
My mother has a teddy which was given to her when she was a baby which she gave to my older brother when he was tiny. The teddy is wearing a cardigan knitted for me by my great grandmother. Will that do?
I was just visiting my sister this past weekend, and out of curiosity asked her if she still had my Cat in the Hat book (she does). It was my first book; I got it from the RIF Mobile when I was...two, I think? I remember picking out, and being pretty excited about it.
Okay, that may not really count, since I'm not really the one who has the book. But I do have plenty of other stuff, such as an eyeless teddy bear with a sewn-on striped night shirt and cap named Petey; Snoopy with a really floppy neck; and Blue Dog. Coincidentally, my fiance still has Red Dog.
One particularly cool thing I still have is my 1st grade book bag, which is circa 1970s plastic, with brown-toned panels in a Mondrian-like pattern. I've seriously considered using it as a purse, but figured it would probably get ruined if I did.
I used to have a trilby called Trevor years ago.
I was a strange teenager.
my christening bangle, My teddy, bruno. other stuff too
For some reason my brain wanted that to be "my christening bagel." You know, in case you wanted a delicious snack after the ceremony, I guess.
The cap is named Petey?
Oh, just tell me my punctuation sucks already. :)
Tons and tons and tons of stuff. WAY too much stuff.
i just found my baby book the other day
my mom used to write passages in it....there was some funny shit in there.
"Jimmy: adressing and old lady in line at the grocery store....
"are you old?"
Old lady: "yes, I suppose so."
Jimmy: "Old people die if they stay out in the sun all day"
Oh, just tell me my punctuation sucks already. :)
Now, I wouldn't do that.
I want you to feel satisfied with yourself, as a person.
i just found my baby book the other day
my mom used to write passages in it....there was some funny shit in there.
"Jimmy: adressing and old lady in line at the grocery store....
"are you old?"
Old lady: "yes, I suppose so."
Jimmy: "Old people die if they stay out in the sun all day"
How great is it that your mom wrote that stuff down? Very cool parenting.
kind of like the stuff ive posted here about our kids....but a lot easier to find.
i re-read that 'things kids say' thread for spence not long ago......
where he called me a little prick....
too funny.
Oh yes... tons of stuff. I even went to the length of purchasing things that I had at one point that my mom sold at a garage sale. The most noteable of these repurchases were my Woodseys.
The Woodseys were this family of squirrels made by Fisher Price. Each Woodsey playset came with a Woodsey doll, a house of some sort and a book about the particular doll. I had the Woodsey family in their log home, grandma and grandpa woodsey with their store, the uncle woodsey who had an airplane and a hanger for the plane. Thanks to the miracle of ebay, I repurchased these, along with three woodsey characters that I did not have. I forgave my mom for selling these toys and they now sit in a box.
If I could get my hands on an old school Fisher Price little people house and sesame street playset, I'd be happy. What I would do with it, I don't know.
Fisher Price was great stuff, no matter the age. I remember my FP Castle, I loved that thing.
How cool that you have those. :)
Now, I wouldn't do that.
I want you to feel satisfied with yourself, as a person.
Awww...you're a sweetheart, ghostie.
i just found my baby book the other day
my mom used to write passages in it....there was some funny shit in there.
"Jimmy: adressing and old lady in line at the grocery store....
"are you old?"
Old lady: "yes, I suppose so."
Jimmy: "Old people die if they stay out in the sun all day"
I bowed my head and had a good chuckle. Thanks for sharing that little gem. How precious kids are!
Awww...you're a sweetheart, ghostie.
Thanks.
I'm getting soft in my old age.
We've all got baggage from our childhood. :haha:
Yep, my response to this thread was going to be 'neurosis'.
I feel a rant coming on.
On the one hand, it's nice having stuff from your childhood. You can look through boxes and think, aw, I remember that! Isn't that neat! But on the other hand, it can bog you down and drive you INSANE.
My mom died a little over a year ago. I am still cleaning out her condo. I have boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff from my childhood. I was an only child, so everything I ever did, apparently, was precious. When we moved her from the house where I grew up to a condo, I tossed out many trash bags full of old school papers and projects, but to keep her happy, I kept a lot as well. I have at least three large Rubbermaid tubs full of photos, three more of papers, cards, letters, certificates and whatnot. I have a box of baby toys, a box of baby shoes, and it just goes on and on.
I hate to toss it out because I enjoy looking at the stuff that was my parents', not that there's nearly as much, so I imagine that one day my kids might enjoy looking through my stuff too.
My husband, OTOH, doesn't have any. Nothing. Why? His parents' house blew up. Literally exploded, in 1989. They were in the house at the time. They were burned and shaken up, but OK. All of their stuff, gone. They rebuilt on the site but the only childhood photos he has are the ones his relatives were given through the years; they made copies and gave them to him. There aren't many. It's sad, but sometimes I envy him!
I had to add this -- my mom also kept a journal of my first two-three years or so, starting from my newborn baby schedule, first laugh, etc., up to the funny things I said. It's fun to read.
I know I've written tons of stuff about my kids over the years, but most of it's been in e-mails and I don't have many of them saved. :(
I guess the thing I've owned the longest is a pair of hemostats, you know, fancified, medical equivalent to a roach clip. Had it (them?) about twenty-five years. I'm 41 this month. Also have a shoebox of old Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars. One is worth about $50, but for $50 I'll keep it.
Recently returned to Pop by his mother, however, is this set of hand carved toy guns/gun rack/and axe. They were carved by his great-grandfather. The axe is one piece, as is the gun rack. Circa about 1940.
At the bottom is a 6-inch scale for, well, scale. Apologies for the smudges and grime.
Evaluating what to get rid of,,,
1- Does this thing work?
2- Would I replace it if it were broken or lost?
3- Does it seem potentially useful—but never actually gets used?
4- Was I “saving” it?
5- Does it serve its purpose well?
6- Has it been replaced by a better model?
7- Is it nicely put away in an out-of-the-way place?
8- Does this memento actually prompt any memories?
9- Have I ever used this thing?
Further explained at
http://zenhabits.net/identify-clutter/I still have a box of Lego bricks from my childhood.
I'll give that to my nephew next year
i just found my baby book the other day
my mom used to write passages in it....there was some funny shit in there.
"Jimmy: adressing and old lady in line at the grocery store....
"are you old?"
Old lady: "yes, I suppose so."
Jimmy: "Old people die if they stay out in the sun all day"
My mom did the same thing. She notes that on my fourth birthday, I asked for a baseball club (bat), I called milk "noot," and upon seeing my first Mounds bar, commented "Oooh. It looks kinda dead."
:D
As for stuff from my childhood, I have tons of it sprinkled around all over the house. This is partly due to my own not being able to toss any of it, AND to the fact that my mother regularly sifts through her own crap, and when she finds things of mine from way back when, sends them to me. Says she's tired of storing all my junk, and now it's
my turn. (Of course, SHE'S the one who kept it; not me!)
:rolleyes:
When we cleaned out my dad's house after he died, I found a few things from my childhood, some drawings that had been stuck in a photo album, a book that had gotten put on the wrong shelf and sat there for 40 years, but not much else. My sisters went through the house about 20 years ago and pretty much threw everything out in some kind of feng shui mania. My dad was pissed, it wasn't their place, and he liked his clutter.
I love the scene in Amelie when the old man is re-united with his childhood toys.
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