MetaChat - Things you've owned for a long time.

The trash can that sits beside my desk at home is made of yellow rubber/plastic, and has a big smiley-face on the side. I bought it from a cheerleader during a fundraiser when I was in high school, probably around 1980 or '81.

posted by BoringPostcards 16 August | 09:31

Man, aside from my NES and Sega Genesis, I own few things over three or four years old. Music player, digital camera, phone, all the things that are important to me are only a few years old.

Don't get me wrong, I have old things, but I've owned them less than a decade.

posted by gc 16 August | 09:36

So funny that you mention your alarm clock - it just occurred to me the other day that my alarm clock was a high school graduation present in 1994. It has a tape deck.

posted by amro 16 August | 09:36

I also have a book my mom bought me before I was born, before she even knew she was having a girl (1983). A Friend is Someone Who Likes You.

posted by youngergirl44 16 August | 09:38

I have a green and orange checkered double-breasted wool 1950's suit that I bought for 180 SEK at a vintage clothing sale which has been my staple "I am the bastard child of the Joker and The riddler" outfit since 1993, combined with various accessories (one winter it was a black cowhide "Kojak" coat and porkpie hat, another it was a tailored 1970s female-pimp full length leather coat and matching newsboy leather cap....).

And yes, I still wear it occasionally. Haven't for a while but it has survived three closet clean-outs since I moved here as I can't throw it away/pass it on just yet...

posted by dabitch 16 August | 09:38

gc: We have Sega too! Do you ever play yours? I get nostalgic when I've been drinking, so I'll hook it up to play some Sonic. Then I realize how old the graphics look and give up. We do still play Dr. Mario on the NES though.

posted by youngergirl44 16 August | 09:39

Probably my Blitzcat book I bought that at some point in elementary school with money I had squirreled away from lunch because my mother it would be detrimental for me to read it.

posted by sperose 16 August | 09:40

I've had a copy of Equal Time for Pogo since I was 7 and a cope of Pogo Revisited which I got sometime after that (10 or 11 maybe). That's just a hair under 40 years. Great question.

posted by doctor_negative 16 August | 09:41

I've had my Doc Martens since '99. I think that's the oldest thing that I currently own, other than some books. Lots of books. Tons and tons of books.

posted by grapefruitmoon 16 August | 09:42

Also: you people use alarm clocks? A *clock* as such doesn't even exist in my house for all the computers & cellphones that manage to tell the time.

posted by grapefruitmoon 16 August | 09:44

youngergirl44: I and my vintage game systems are 8000 miles apart right now, but my parents are under strict orders not to throw away any of my video games or books (everything else is fine). I have a soft spot for 8- and 16-bit graphics, so dated is alright to me. I find the 32-bit era shows its age a lot worse than anything.

(God, the hours I spent playing Mega Man and Sonic...)

posted by gc 16 August | 09:45

So many things! But the real stand-out would be my dishes. A few years ago, I gave away all my dish sets except the mismatched chunky pottery handed down by my grandmother.

Every so often, a family member will give me a piece of Blue Hill pottery they found in a yard sale or a junk shop, and I scan the shelves for pieces anytime I'm in a Goodwill. (The pottery still makes matching pieces, so a couple of times, people have splurged and given me new sets, too.) I use the demitasse set daily for serving cappuccino.

But my sentimental favorite is something they stopped making: the GIANT curved coffee mug in that gorgeous faintly shimmering raku gray-black. (It's a scaled-up version of the perfect little demitasse; the big mugs they make now are chunkier, clumsier.) It's probably a second: the lip of the mug is uneven, something that only becomes apparent when you fill it. It holds more coffee than any reasonably person needs, which makes it perfect for me.

posted by Elsa 16 August | 09:56

The Bobbsey Twin & The Big River Mystery. When I was in 1st grade and lived in Pennsylvania, my grandmother allowed me to pick a book and she bought it for me. This was the first book I ever owned. When I went to Penn State in 1976, I lost track of the book and never really thought about it again. Then, in 1990 I was shopping for used books in Atlanta when I stumbled across a copy. I said to my wife at the time, "Hey, I used to own this. I inscribed my name across the pages on the bottom." I turned the book, and there was my name. This is also, by far, the strangest incident of my life.

posted by Ardiril 16 August | 10:02

I have a shirt dress I've owned since high school. It's a sort of parachute type material, and it buttons all the way up the front. I use it as a house dress. My Dad sent me some old pictures the other day, and Marc noticed that in some of them, I'm wearing the dress.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 16 August | 10:06

Hey Ardiril . . . WE ARE!

I too have a pair of 90s-vintage Docs, but mine are from 92 or 93. And I still wear them! Though the bottoms are pretty worn down.

I definitely have a few books here that date to the 80s . . . otherwise most of my apartment is circa 2001.

posted by leesh 16 August | 10:09

also an alarm clock (that I recieved as a gift in 1984!!!)
Does my OH count? I've had him since 1983 and he's still in perfect working order just like the clock.....

posted by Wilder 16 August | 10:12

My quasi-save-the-earth philosophy is, do not get rid of items unless there's a good reason to. Still have tons of stuff from my childhood; a handmade stuffed elephant; several sweaters that my mother helped pick out since I was too young to pay for them myself; my watch, which I got when I was 14; and the green comb which I keep in my purse, that one's been around since 6th grade or so, I think when I got my first purse.

posted by Melismata 16 August | 10:13

My gold mezuzah. It is a small one, designed to hang on a chain around the neck. It was a posthumous bas mitzvah gift from my maternal grandfather. It has been around for a long time now.

I also have the maroon sweatshirt from the days I sang in choir in junior high and high school. It is surprising how much longer my torso seems to be these days than then. And somewhere in my old sweatshirts I also have the Seattle Aquarium shirt with the sea otter on the front which I bought on my first trip to this city -- that was at least 25 years ago.

posted by bearwife 16 August | 10:28

Oh, and I still have the white and blue elephant mug I had as a child. It is designed as an elephant's head, with a trunk, and ears that are the handles. If you look inside it, on the bottom it says "All Gone." I used to look forward to seeing those words when I was working my way through a mug of hot chocolate or cold milk . . . that may be the oldest thing I have.

posted by bearwife 16 August | 10:30

I bought a wicker suitcase from an Asian imports chain store (Azuma, don't think they're around anymore) in NYC in 1978. Pretty sure it's the thing I've owned the longest.

posted by iconomy 16 August | 10:44

I have t-shirts I still wear older than your alarm clock :) Seriously.

I try not to keep too many things because my father was a hoarder. So when he passed away I made a great effort to get rid of anything that didn't have a REAL value (read: use). Off the top of my head, I can think of 2 items in my current basement that I have had my entire life (I am 44) or since I was around 5. The table we had in our kitchen when I was a child is now the one in my basement where we put our mini fridge for keeping medicines for the farm. The other item is a small rubbish bin with collegiate pennants on it from my room as a child.

posted by terrapin 16 August | 10:59

I was given a silver spoon as a baby in 1964 that I still have. It is not in regular use however. I only just recently retired the clock radio I got for graduation in 1982, but I still have lots of things that date from the 80s. Let's see . . . I have some cassettes from the 70s (The Grass Roots and Three Dog Night), and also some cassettes we made ourselves as kids.

Oh no, I've got it: I have a girls sewing basket from the 60s that is still "the sewing kit" for whenever I've got to fix something. Also, a plastic hand mirror from the 60s that has always, always, been in my bathroom, to be used for closeups or to look at the back of my head. It has a silly drawing on the back of a Victorian-ish girl running, although the picture has mostly worn off. There are chips in the plastic where it has been dropped many many times but it still survives. There was a plastic box that went with it but that got broken ages ago.

posted by JanetLand 16 August | 11:04

I just realized that I am a major clothes hoarder, I began collecting bowling shirts at 17, and the green "Morris county tires" one (lovely color, but far too large) was my go-to shirt for the last two weeks of pregnancy because it was the only thing that I could button over my belly.

But yeah, for stuff I have paints and ink pens from my first year in art school, 1989. And my wee girl has my Ernie, My cookies monster, my Fisher Price music box and my "The diggingest dog" book, which has my name and the year 1978 written in it.

posted by dabitch 16 August | 11:09

I don't really think of 1989 as all that long ago so I still have a ton of stuff from then. Lots of my books, furniture, and knick-nacks have been in my possession since before 1990 and most of them are far older than that. Probably the thing that I've owned the longest would be a copy of A.A.Milne's "Now We Are Six" which my older sister gave me when I was six which was in 1970.

I own lots of things, mostly furniture, that have been in my family for many years, probably the oldest is my great-grandfather's watch which dates to 1880 or so.

posted by octothorpe 16 August | 11:28

Off topic but Ardiril have you been back to Penn State recently? I was up there this weekend and barely recognized campus, it's changed so much.

posted by octothorpe 16 August | 11:30

I still have the awesome coffee table my mom gave me in 1987 when I moved out on my own for the first time -- it's a late 60's style cast iron framed thing with a lovely single piece of mahogany as a top, with nice lines that is sleek enough and appropriately sized so that it fits well enough with most decor styles from "college student party house" to Danish Modern.

It's one of the few pieces of furniture that's survived all of my many moves, mainly because it's so bloody ubiquitously useful; over the years it's served not just as a coffee table / sofa dining table, but also variously as a printer stand, a bedside table, plant stand, bookshelf, office workspace, etc... It has some nicks and stains; notably burn marks / rings from all the various beverages, cigarettes and (ahem) utensils that my parents, their friends, and my friends and I have perpetrated upon it over the course of over four decades of communal living situations.

I recently offered to have it refinished, as we just bought all new furniture for Chez lfr, but the mister declined saying "I like it the way it is, it has character". It works as a corner table between our new sofa / love seat configuration, and it suits both the scale and the period of our little 50's suburban ranch home.

I still have my old black leather jacket with the Skinny Puppy and NIN stickers on it, too.

posted by lonefrontranger 16 August | 11:58

I haven't been there since 1980. I'll drag it up on Google maps.

posted by Ardiril 16 August | 11:58

aaaaaw, I want bearwife's elephant mug. that sounds so cute.

posted by dabitch 16 August | 11:59

I bought a chest of drawers last month. And I plan to own it until the day I die. Which might well be in 30 years. Or a few years more.
The chest is from approx. 1880 and the mahogany wood has a lovely iridiscence. So there's that.
I have a stuffed animal that I've owned since I was one year old. But obviously it's just stored in a carboard box in storage. So that doesn't count.
I recently threw away the extra tall 220 cm bed that my parents bought for me when I was about 17. So that didn't make past 25 years.
I have a wooden box that my great grandfather used to store his tools. He was a steam train driver and engineer. But I've only had it for 23 years.

posted by jouke 16 August | 12:28

I'm pretty much the opposite of a hoarder, although I live with hoarder types. Two moves within the last 6 years shed tons of crap. I think the oldest things I own are probably childhood Christmas ornaments.

posted by toastedbeagle 16 August | 12:29

Oh. Well, I do have old stuff. Just not much stuff that I've owned a long time. I buy vintage/antique furniture instead of Ikea. I have a china chest from the early 1900s and a couple of mid-century modern dressers. My favorite 'old thing' is a hand-tooled brick from my great, great, great grandfathers home in Austin in the 1880s. I found it at the old home site three years ago.

posted by toastedbeagle 16 August | 12:44

extra tall 220 cm bed

WANT. Specifically, my 2m tall husband WANTS.

Hard to think what I've owned for a long time. My parents still live in my childhood home, so there's still some of my stuff there, but nothing I'm especially attached to. I do have some garments I've had for 15 years, and I was given my viola 13 years ago.

posted by altolinguistic 16 August | 12:56

Oh, it is, dabitch. I love it so much I tend to look at it, pick it up, and then put it back -- I don't want to damage it with actual hot or cold liquid.

Also, if we are on furniture, I will tell you all that I am torn between two furniture items as to which I love more. One is an old buggy seat, made into a small love seat, which my parents bought at an auction many, many years ago. My cats adore it. The second is a stuffed mongoose, bravely attacking a stuffed king cobra which looms above it, hood raised and mouth open. I inherited that last piece, which I think my dad got from his parent's home, when my dad died. It lives atop my wine cabinet, out of kitteh reach.

posted by bearwife 16 August | 13:13

I have a copy of what is now a very politically incorrect book, which was a gift for me from a friend of the family when I was born. The edition I have was published in February 1959, 3 months before I was born.

I also still have Teddy Edward, who will be 47 years old at Christmas.

posted by Senyar 16 August | 13:47

I have a couple books from when I was a kid. And some vinyl records from when I was a teen (early/mid 1980s).

I have books that were my mum's when she was a kid. I also have some pieces of furniture that have been in the family since the early 1900s. The most recent pieces were from the 1970s. One of the items is my great-grandmother's hope chest from the 1910s that holds linens, clothing and a couple quilt tops all from before 1950.

posted by deborah 16 August | 13:48

I also still have one of my childhood blocks, which I kept because it happens to have a J and a P on it (my initials).

posted by JanetLand 16 August | 14:02

The thing I've owned for the longest (about 22 years) and the oldest thing I own (about 220 years old) are both books.

posted by misteraitch 16 August | 14:45

I forgot that I have my same teddy bear from the year I was born. All the arms and legs and eyes have stitches from where my mother mended him. He is still wearing an outfit my mother made for him a few years before she passed. Same material that had been used in my grandmother's bedroom in the late 70s... I think that room is still the same even though she passed in 1986.

posted by terrapin 16 August | 14:45

alto; a quick look into the Dutch forum for tall people told me that 220 cm beds are pretty much everywhere available here in NL. 2 m tall, which I am as well, doesn't get you into that club. :-) It seems to be deemed tall you have to be above 2m. And then you can get beds that are 240 and longer at Kuperus Almelo. :-)
Not much use to you I'm sure since you're probably located in the US.
I guess my message is; getting a 220 cm bed should be very achievable.
And sleeping curled up or with legs sticking out is fine on holiday in the mediterranean. But at home it's nice to be able to stretch out. :-)

posted by jouke 16 August | 15:06

My first guitar, a Yamaha acoustic that I got for Christmas in 1978 when I was 10.
It was my primary acoustic for playing and recording until I broke down and got my dream guitar last summer, a Martin HD-28.
The Yamaha now hangs on the wall by the kitchen for easy playing while cooking.

posted by chococat 16 August | 15:58

I have several things which have not always been "mine" per se, but have been in my orbit for a long time.

My parents' dresser while I was growing up was this battered sort of art deco-y thing with some lovely veneers (in the spots where it hadn't broken off, of course). As long as I could remember, the top drawer held some of my mom's special things (letters, a silver hand mirror), the next drawer held her lacy stuff, and the rest held the clothes. But what really set it off were the already-yellowed masking tape labels, with my mother's tidy printing:

TRAIN SCHEDULES
BEAUTIFUL PICTURES FILE
FRAMES

Years later I learned that they had gotten it off the curb early in their marriage, when it was probably already 30 or 40 years old.

When I got divorced and moved into a studio apartment, they offered it to me like an heirloom. It fit nicely in my front hall, where it held craft and office supplies. Now I live with my partner in a much more spacious apartment with much nicer furniture, but we still have it. When we moved in we found a nook just behind the door of our storage-closet-slash-office. It fit the dresser with just an inch to spare all around, including the top. I think we'll be keeping it.

My mother kept all of our children's books, no matter how bad the condition was. A couple of months ago, I picked up the excellent yet highly tattered I Will Not Go To Market Today to take home and show my partner, and my mom came sprinting out of the house telling me that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES COULD I TAKE THAT.

"But it's MINE," I said. She snorted.

The other thing I can think of, aside from my teddy bear Theodore, is the old Mary Poppins book (the original PL Travers version) from my grandma's house. It was always my favorite, and when my grandma was getting ready to downsize she had a little auction with Monopoly money for all of us. By that point I think I was 16; it was the only thing I wanted.

posted by Madamina 16 August | 16:10

When my grandfather died 20 or so years ago, I got the leavings (ie all the stuff my mother/aunt/uncles were going to throw out). Quite a few vintage tools that I will probably never use but which keep a part of my grandfather with me, quite a few technical books that I will never read but which take pride of place in my bookshelves, stuff like that. I also inherited his telescope, which he bought in about 1970 and a small lathe which he bought at about the same time.

I own a leather jacket that I bought in 1985 that I love. At the time, it cost me ~$700, back before cheap imported clothes made everything so cheap. I bought it with the overtime I earned in one marathon week prepping a boat for a boat show, where two of us travelled to Sydney, slept on the boat and worked 19-hour days for a week to get it ready in time. It's quite dated (think shoulder pads and lots of big press-studs), but incredibly warm and I love it. it will be in my wardrobe until the day I die.

posted by dg 16 August | 17:53

I have the childrens' Bible my dad gave me for my first communion in the early '70s. I have a stuffed lion that was my favorite "pet" from the time I was 4 or 5. I just realized that I have clothes I've had longer than my kids (a pair of capris, a couple of shirts). I tend to hold on to a lot of sentimental things. Oh, and my alarm clock (Snoopy atop his dog house) outlasted both my marriages. That one I think about often.

posted by redvixen 16 August | 18:14

dg, I have a swingy black leather jacket that I bought in Florence, Italy, back in about 1984 or 1985. The leather is incredibly soft. The shoulders are padded, but it is still super cool in my eyes. :)

posted by bearwife 16 August | 18:22

I have my wristband thingy and my mom's wristband thingy from the hospital when I was born. That doesn't really count since I don't remember it.

A couple of books have been with me forever:
1. A Picture for Harold's Room (which I always called the purple crayon book, & still love dearly)
2. No Dessert Until You've Finished Your Mashed Potatoes (which terrified me to no end as a kid.)
3. (George), E. L. Konigsburg - this one I read in elementary school & thought it was terribly cool that the kid had a little man living inside of him.

I still have my Spacetilt game that I played for countless hours. My record was (& still is) 38 times forward & backward without falling in a hole.

I still have the blue hoodie I was wearing on Franklin Street when UNC won the NCAA championship in 1982. It has blue handprints & paint smudges all over it.

posted by chewatadistance 16 August | 18:30

It's harder to pick out stuff in my house that I haven't owned forever than it is to pick out newer stuff. I still have:
* all my old vinyl records, which include all the records I inherited from my older brother
* the recordplayer to play them on, which I bought with my first real paycheck from my first real job in about 1988.
* T-shirts from the 80s.
* All my furniture is pretty much ancient, inherited or off the curb - I bought new furniture from Ikea once: in 1992. Still have it all.
* Almost all the children's books that were my brothers' and mine and then my kids. I even have some of my parent's children's books from the 20s and 30s.
It goes on and on. I am a packrat.

posted by mygothlaundry 16 August | 19:20

Ooh, I still have all my vinyl records, dating back to about 1970 or so.

posted by dg 16 August | 20:18

I've still got a lot of old sweatshirts from when I was in high school. I've cut them up for a quilt I'm going to make Real Soon Now.

The oldest thing I have is a stuffed toy I call Teddy Tiger - my mother and I made it together from a fabric panel. The front and back printouts were cut out of the panel and sewn together. That thing has been with me for 37 years.

posted by lysdexic 16 August | 20:32

My parents gave me a key to the front door when I was in fourth grade. I still carry it everywhere I go, and I still use it to let myself in when I visit my dad.

posted by Hugh Janus 16 August | 20:36

I'm currently watching the ballgame on a television we bought before my 23-year-old son was born. It was a floor model (i.e., was on all day long for several months before I bought it) at Montgomery Ward.

posted by Doohickie 16 August | 20:59

I've got a rabbit's foot I found on the sidewalk outside my house 35 years ago.

posted by Joe Beese 16 August | 22:05

Looking around...ah! A pair of headphones I got for Christmas in 1970. They still work. Gee. I think I'll give 'Morrison Hotel' a listen again.

posted by Kronos_to_Earth 16 August | 22:19

Wait, is it the oldest thing or the thing we have owned the longest. I have a book that's 190 years old that I picked up when I was 17 which kinda fits both criteria... Wow, I just realized I totally live in a museum.

posted by dabitch 17 August | 09:20

Oh gee, I forgot about my vinyl records, which I inherited from my evil stepmother mostly. Those date way back, even including the first Beatles album.

posted by bearwife 17 August | 11:40

16 August 2010