what you will not part with....

[jamesngalveston]

OK...we all are a little weird...or at least I think so..
some things we will not part with...
here is mine.....

about 10 years ago i was in the yucatan in the summer..and one of the locals approached me and was trying to sale a blanket...(in the summer).
I touched it, smelled it, and just checked it out...It was handmade and heavy..I mean really heavy like maybe 5 lbs are so. I bought it.
Was are is red and black and really thick...
By far the warmest thing I have ever seen are felt, I have goose down that can not even compare...
I will never part with it..I have never seen anything like it since.

 

[the_rayway]

I have a chunk of 2x4.

When I was 16, Bryan and I had just started dating and it was my birthday. He asked his friend what to get me and Mikey said "driftwood! Chicks love driftwood!"

So being Bryan, he went into the garage and found a piece of 2x4 (because it's wood, so kind of like driftwood), painted it black, then drilled out "Bryan & Ray, As Fast as They Can" which he painted silver. You can see where he wasn't sure how my full name was spelled and just stuck with "Ray"

As Fast As I Can was our song, by Great Big Sea. You should check it out, the words are wonderful! I have that chunk of 2x4 hanging in my music room, next to my Guns 'n' Roses jean jacket. Every time I look at it, I smile.

 

[cimbaliw]

Many years ago I found this pawn shop prize, a '49 Gibson 175, maybe even a prototype. Something to be passed down for generations to come. She plays real nice.

 

[JohnT]

The only thing that I can not live without is my Wife.

 

[wineforfun]

My mother just passed away a few months ago and I have a voicemail saved that she left me a few months before she passed. It is priceless.

 

[sour_grapes]

I pondered this from the time I read it last night. Upon reading, I figured that there had to be, among the clutter of things I own, something cherished that fit the character that James was asking about.

But nothing came to mind! I took a mental trip through my house, pausing, in my mind's eye, at every room and cubbyhole and closet. I could think of many things I am fond of, but nothing that I wouldn't be willing to forgo if need be.

We are a few days away from Thanksgiving. The realization that there is no material good that I cherish that deeply made me both thankful for the many fine things that I do own, and, more deeply, grateful that I am not attached to any material thing so tightly. Believe me, I am far from a Zen Buddhist, but this was a comforting realization for me.

Hey, time for a joke: Why are the corners of a Zen Buddhist's house always dusty?


Because he has no attachments! (Think vacuum cleaner....)

 

[Elmer]

I have never really been handed down anything from grandparents, or my parents, so I dont really have any heirlooms.

I have a few items I have spent a life time collecting. My drum kit, my hand drums.
The near 1000 comic books. Some old, some new I am collecting to leave to my kids. (yes I read them myself).

I have my copy of Watchmen, which I read in the hospital awaiting the arrival of my son.
I have a lock of my wife's hair, which I took a long, long time ago. I figured I could clone her when the sci-fi future arrived. That technology never appeared and you should have seen how pissed she was when she found out I took hair off her head while she was sleeping.

But after not so many years on this planet and watching people go thru death and divorce, not in that order and not always the same people: I have found that things are just things.
Things are replaceable to a degree.
And I find every few years when cleaning all the crap out of the house that those things I thought I could not live with out usually get tossed because I have out grown them.

On second thought, my golf clubs. that is what I can not live with out!
dont touch them, dont look at them, they are my Precious!
When the zombie Apocalypse hits, my wife and kids can fend for themselves.
I will be grabbing my sweet, sweet golf bag and bring her to saftey!

 

[JohnT]

After some thought, I figured it out.

My grandmother, grandfather, uncle, and father were all refugees from Hungary. The whole story of how they escaped Hungary (after the wall), starving in West Germany, and by some miracle making it to these shores is a very long story. It is hard to imagine that my father escaped harm when he was shot at by border guards and caught on 3 separate attempts to escape.

One of the only possessions that my grandmother brought with her was a simple cooking pot. It is heavy, black, and dented, but knowing that this item made the journey with my family makes it more valuable than gold to me.

 

[Turock]

My girlfriend in high school used to write me COPIOUS letters--almost daily. On Jan. 2nd of this year,she passed away. I saved all those letters in a folder, and find great rememberances of her when I read them now--like she's still here.

 

[Julie]

My Christmas star. It is the star that was on our tree as I grew up and the only thing on the top of my Christmas thru my whole adult life. It is a solid white star trim in red, all plastic, and it is starting to show it's age. Two years ago, a small hole developed in the center, I was devastated! My daughter tried to fine another one and all she could find was a very small star, it was one that screwed into one of the old style Christmas sockets. So I was not a very happy camper that Christmas, that was my very first Christmas that I did not have that star on my Christmas tree. So last year comes along and again I am not being a happy camper. My husband started looking to see if there was some way he could repair my star and he did. He was able to take the smaller one that Megan had bought me and was able to glue it on top of the hole, it fits prefect and you would never know.

That star represents my life as a child and as an adult, no matter how skimpy the presents were under the tree or how hard life was at that time that star always shined at Christmas times.

 

[jamesngalveston]

dang julie...that story brought back so many memories for me .....
the star that we while growing up is long gone, but my sister has a few ornaments left from when my mom had in her 20s....everytime i see them on the tree, memories just flood...
thanks for the post...

 

[bakervinyard]

My family and I decorate our Christmas tree with ornaments from our travel adventures. We don't have 2 of any ornament on our tree. Some are a little
'goofy" some are really nice. My daughter dropped one a couple years ago, it spoiled the tree decorating party. When we hang them on the tree it brings back memories of our family vacations over the years. Bakervinyard

 

[Deezil]

My grandfather was diagnosed with esophageal cancer some years ago - it wasn't called Mesothelioma because he was actively suing a few of his employers for asbestos exposure during his lifetime (rather powerful ones at that)

He kept it a secret for some years.. Then one day there was a phone call; my grandparents were splitting up. Grandpa's moving back to Utah. Being a strong young man, I had to help pack the house up, split it in half & physically cut the tension in each room as I walked.

Grandpa deteriorated.
And he ran into his High School Sweetheart, while in Utah

Long story short, because I dont want this to spoil my day, they got married 6 weeks before he passed away. Between then, and his passing, he rewrote his will.. Or she did.. We're not sure, but it's not the same will he had for the 40 years he was married to my Grandma.

You can imagine the legal battle that ensued.

But in the end.. The newlywed still lives in the house he bought with the money he got from the first divorce. The newlywed's son is/was driving around in his $40k fully loaded chevy silverado.. We weren't allowed in the house, to see; We didnt receive any of his hunter rifles, fishing poles, grandfather clock, silver tea set.. Or family photos. These people dont even know who're they're looking at, when they dig through those pictures.. Why would they want them, if not out of spite? Knowing full well, we wanted them.

What DO we have?

1 raggedy cardboard box, falling apart, but stuffed full of photos - everything from black and whites from when my grandpa was young, to him raising my mom, aunt and uncles, to watching us grandkids grow up.

Hell or high water, nothing will separate me from that box.
It's all I'll ever have.

 

[Julie]

dang julie...that story brought back so many memories for me .....
the star that we while growing up is long gone, but my sister has a few ornaments left from when my mom had in her 20s....everytime i see them on the tree, memories just flood...
thanks for the post...

We didn't have much when I was growing up, lived in a two bedroom house, no plumbing and very little money. If we got more than two presents a piece under the tree we thought we were rich but what we did have was that star, my brothers and I loved that star. When I got married, my Mom gave me that star and when I had my three children and their father turned into an alcoholic, every year I would put that star up and tell myself it will get better. Today, I decorate and when I put that star up, I think of my life as a child, the mistakes I have made in life and the things I have done right and that star is always there, shining

 

[jamesngalveston]

I can not reply to that, my heart really goes out to Julie...
I came from about the same kind of upbringing...We had plumbing, but not much money...My mom raised chickens,ducks,turkeys, and a huge garden and sewed repaired clothes at home form money.
It was very tight, but we were fed, and lIke you, we were lucky to have a few presents....I think of it often now....

 

[Fordguy]

My Dad passed away in 2001 and he made wine when I was growing up. He would only make 2 or 3 batches a year from the grapes vines
or apple tree in the back yard.
I began to make wine about 3 years ago. I asked mom where dad's winemaking stuff was.
I remembered that she sold the carboys, she did find one that was in a separate closet. Then a few weeks later Mom
came over to the our house and was carrying something....it was Dads hydrometer.
Probably not real old...maybe 20 to 25 years old, but it was still in its little round tube with the instructions. He had written a few readings on the back
of the instructions.
I thought that was pretty neat.
I have only used it once or twice....I sure don't want to break that one.

 

[tingo]

Fordguy, i have a hand corker mounted on the wall. A mentor of mine, whom also has passed, gave it to me. Great story. Thanks for sharing.