MetaChat - Your oldest possession

I have a teddy bear I got the day I was born. Still sleep with him every night (well, not every night- I do not travel with him for fear of losing him).

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 30 August | 20:26

The Bobsey Twins & The Big River Mystery - My grandmother bought it when I was 6 or so. This was in a small town outside Erie PA. The book was lost sometime after I first went to college, about 1976. In 1993 while shopping for baby stuff, I stumbled across it (I had written my name on it in a distinct manner) in Atlanta GA. 16 years later and 800 away.

I also have some baby stuff but it's boring.

posted by Ardiril 30 August | 20:41

Well, I have my baby book. Technically I guess that was my mom's possession, but she gave it to me. So second would be this little cameo necklace I was given while a babe in the hospital waiting to come home. It doesn't fit, but I have it.

posted by Miko 30 August | 21:14

The item I have had the longest is the steamer trunk that my grandmother brought with her from Dresden. It seems to have always been in my life. I used to get in it, when I was a little kid, close the lid, and feel like I could never be found (a preferable state in those days.)

Today, it holds my most precious possessions.

posted by MonkeyButter 30 August | 21:17

Wow, Adiril, the book came back to you.

posted by MonkeyButter 30 August | 21:18

I *may* have some old books tucked away that predate this, but the possession I've had the longest that I can think of that I know where I can put my hands on it this minute is the clarinet I started playing in 7th grade band. Still play it sometimes too (outdoor concerts and the like). I have better clarinets that I play on "serious gigs."

posted by Rand0mkeystrike 30 August | 21:41

I guess a bangle from when I was a baby.

posted by gaspode 30 August | 22:13

I had to think long and hard about this, but here's what I believe I have had the longest:

≡ Click to see image ≡

This is the first page of my pilot's logbook, dating it by the first entry to Jun 27, 1970. I was 16 years old and airplane crazy. I flew for 26 years on and off- it's one of the things I miss most about my youth.

posted by pjern 30 August | 22:14

I have a somewhat water damaged copy of Now We are Six that my sister gave me when I was six (naturally). That makes it 41 years old.

posted by octothorpe 30 August | 22:24

I have a small, crib sized silk comforter that was mine as an infant. It's actively been in use since then (usually hidden in the layers of my bedding where ever I need extra warmth) but suffered quite a bit of damage when I used it for my son. I don't mind though, the wear is part of its story and it's still very warm.

Of things that I remember getting (as opposed to things that have always been around), the Kodak Instamatic I found in a park restroom while on vacation in Alberta Canada in 1967. I tried to turn it into a Mountie and he asked me to hold onto it until he could locate the rightful owner. Never did hear back about that one, still holding onto the camera.

posted by jamaro 30 August | 22:45

I have this small plushy lion with an orange mane and bright green eyes I call Pal. I got him when I was nine, some thirty-six years ago, in the gift shop of a hotel on what turned out to be the one and only family vacation we ever took not long after I went to live with my father and his wife, who became a second mom to me (I suspect my father was saving for my college and my mom's long-term well-being; he drove the same old Cadillac for about twenty years, too).

There's very little I keep anymore. I think of how it's all just gonna end up in a landfill someday (depressing, I know). But I still have Pal. I keep him by my desk.

posted by Pips 30 August | 22:51

(If you were talking age of item, I have my father's 1931 high school class ring. Bridgeport High School. Doesn't exist anymore.)

posted by Pips 30 August | 22:58

Toss-up between a blond, eyeless, scratchy teddy bear (which might have belonged to my father), baby book, a locket with a diamond chip or the porringer my step-uncle sent with the note "pablum rots the brain".

posted by brujita 30 August | 23:05

I have a little leather toy that was given to me when I was one or so. It's been with me as long as I can remember - ugly, weird and called Huck-A-Buck. No idea why that name in particular, but there you go.

posted by ninazer0 30 August | 23:13

What a wonderful question. Thanks for posting it. The oldest things I own are possessions that only came into my care a mere ten years ago, but they mean more to me than the most prized jewels could.

My mother's mother, a devout Croatian Catholic (as only those can be), kept many a rosary. Once she was dead and buried, the unwashed hoard fell upon her lovely rosaries, those made of rosewood and crystal. Only my brother and I were interested in her exquisitely lovely old bead rosaries that she used daily at her church. I, as the eldest, was given first offer. She had four pair that she would rotate through. I choose the two that I felt most dear, and luckily, my younger brother felt the same about the other two pair. We sniggered at our other relatives who were quick to snatch her Cartier watches and amazing jewelry. We wanted nothing to do with her ugly old furniture that would fetch major ducats at market. We had the essence of our grandmother. We had the things that she held in her hands every single day. These things mean more to me than words can even begin to convey.

I miss my sweet grandmother, who I called Nonnie (despite her Croatian upbringing, she was sold to my grandfather's Italian family at a young age, hence the name). She was a wonderful person, and I wish so often to have her life and experience to help guide my way. I know my brother does as well. Počivao u miru, draga baka.

posted by msali 31 August | 00:08

I have a couple books that were given to me in the early 1970s.

posted by deborah 31 August | 00:40

msali, your memories are so touching. Thank you. I have a few every day things from my gran, too; a kitchen knife sharpened out of shape over the years, a cheep little curio box, that sort of thing. But they are worth more then gold to me.

posted by MonkeyButter 31 August | 02:01

I have Teddy Edward, a Chad Valley bear given to me when I was three. He's still in pretty good nick for such an old ted.

posted by Senyar 31 August | 02:54

As the oldest grandchild, I have my paternal gramma's first wedding ring. Grand Dad bought more extravagant ones as the years went by. The engagement part of the ring set belongs to my aunt and has been turned into something else. I wear the basic half moon of tiny diamond bits all set in white gold.

Lately, I lost so much weight that I was afraid of losing it and stopped wearing it.

I have a teddy bear given to me by my maternal gramma when I was 4, so 39 years old now. It has been patched and restuffed, but is still my favorite Teddy. Lives in my closet on a shelf.

posted by lilywing13 31 August | 03:54

These might not be my oldest, but I have all my Mad magazines from the early 60s.

posted by Obscure Reference 31 August | 06:45

I'm always surprised when people don't have things from their childhood, which is, I guess, a window on how sheltered my own childhood was. I have many toys and books that were given to me as an infant (a Raggedy Ann who is my 'real' (in the Velveteen Rabbit sense) toy, a stuffed soldier toy that appears in my hospital photos, a copy of Winnie-the-Pooh, a wooden shape sorting box) and my house is filled with furniture that was in the house I grew up in. I also have most of my grandmother's cookware (some of which came from her grandmother), much of which is used weekly. I cherish having all these tangible reminders of my family history to live with every day. My son, who is five, understands that we eat at the same table I ate at as a child, and knows that someday the table will be his, and he says he wants to eat at the same table with his children. We'll see.

posted by anastasiav 31 August | 07:59

Probably my 1960 Guild F-40, which I bought for $125 in 1968. Still have it and still love it.

posted by danf 31 August | 08:32

A teddy bear I had when I was a kid (maybe five-ish) and the taper used to light my christening candle. I do not have the actual christening candle. I have no idea why.

posted by TrishaLynn 31 August | 08:53

My teddy bear. I got it when I was 1 or 2 or so. So...circa 1959-60 or so?
(If you ever watched Gilligan's Island, it's identical to the bear Thurston Howell had. But I had mine first, dammit!)

posted by Thorzdad 31 August | 09:03

My mom still has my christening candle.

I believe I'm also in the teddy bear camp. My teddy bear is named Theodore, although once (at my day camp's Teddy Bear Day) I presented him to the public with the more melodious and gender-bending name of Melinda Ellen. He/she won "softest bear."

My parents named all my stuffed animals. We had one bear named Potbelly, and one bear named Penny after my dad's sister, but the best name is the small, rather generic-looking one named Pierre S. duPont IV (always the complete name). I think my dad was behind that one; it was the name of the governor of Delaware when I was born.

My brother had a lion and possibly a bear, both of which he referred to as GUND (the name of the company that made them, written on the tag).

posted by Madamina 31 August | 09:25

My mother still has a few of my baby things, I think. I have a few garments I was wearing 20 years ago, some of which still fit...

The oldest thing I own, though, is probably my house (1865).

posted by altolinguistic 31 August | 09:48

Oh, my, this is a tough one.

I suppose the stuffed lion (Aslan) that my grandparents gave barely-a-toddler Elsa is still mine --- that is, if I asked for it or took it, my mother wouldn't blink. But Aslan, along with a few other especially nice stuffed animals of mine, lives at my mother's (newish) house where grandchildren play with it. Most of my childhood treasures met that happy fate: I passed them on to my nieces, nephews, or friends' kids themselves or curated them somewhere the children would come for visits.

Then there's Mom's tiny earthenware teapot with (again) a lion for a handle. It's just big enough to brew one small cup of tea. I was allowed to use it sometimes --- in fact, I believe I'm the only person who used it during my childhood which made it feel like mine. It is mine now, though I think she only gave it to me in adulthood.

Or maybe it's the enormous silver-plated safety pin keyring a friend gave me when I was a 14-year-old punk rocker. I've never stopped using it; it's hooked to my bag strap right now.

posted by Elsa 31 August | 11:04

I, too, wish this was about actual age of item.

I have my first swaddling blanket and cap, and I also own the Rolling Stones "Hot Rocks" record I claimed from my folks when I was four.

But I also own a circa 2500 B.C.E. stone bowl (it's possibly Syro-Hittite and not Mesopotamian, which would put it in the merely 4,000 year-old range) a pair of slightly younger terracotta Astarte figures, and an Anatolian bull in white stone that's probably middle to late Second Millenium B.C.E.

Because damn, that's some old shit.

posted by Hugh Janus 31 August | 11:10

I cherish having all these tangible reminders of my family history to live with every day.

Like anastasiav, I have family things all over the apartment: a few pieces of Danish Modern that my parents bought (probably to differentiate themselves from their parents' heavy antiques), including the dining table where we ate dinner every night; a great-grandmothers silver flatware; several pieces of jewelry. I even have the carefully packaged and labelled gifts --- silk purses and dolls, paper fans, silk baby shoes --- that my great-great[-great?]-aunt brought back to her family from the royal family of Korea, where she (a doctor married to a missionary) had worked to save people from the cholera epidemic.

I also "own" an antiquity that some unknown family member brought back from Korea, but I took it to the archaeology lab; it looks to me like a model of a funerary vessel, and I have no business displaying it in my living room filled with paper clips or whatever. We're trying to sort out what it is, then figure out where it might belong.

But those things didn't become mine until much later in life. The others were mine during childhood.

posted by Elsa 31 August | 11:25

I think it's a book I got for Christmas or a birthday, I don't remember, when I was 6 or 7 - "The Travels of Marco Polo" (some illustrations from it). I've had it now for...well, I'll be 39 again this October.

posted by Kronos_to_Earth 31 August | 12:05

I have some pictures that I drew in kindergarten. That would be 40 years.

posted by plinth 31 August | 12:37

That is amazing Ardiril! Just. Wow.

The thing I've had the longest is a gold charm bracelet which is good luck for a baby to wear.

The oldest thing I have is probably a Chinese antiquity that was given to my late roommate by her archaeology professor. I would like to get it dated some day. It's a metal figure of a dog, about the size of a bookend (makes a good bookend, too).

posted by halonine 31 August | 14:04

anastasiav: we moved around so much and even ended up homeless a couple times when I was growing up. We were just lucky we had family and friends who could store a few things for us. And one of my mother's boyfriends was such an asshole he deliberately put a box of stuff from my siblings and myself under a leak in the cellar. Doing that destroyed most of the things we made as kids, school memorabilia, etc. I'm surprised she didn't kill him.

Now, if we were going by the oldest things we owned - I have my maternal great-grandmother's hope chest (my aunt who passed away last November gave it to me several years ago). She got married in 1918 so it's from some time before that. Inside it are family objects from the 20s through the 40s including a quilt top, some of my grandmother's clothing from the 20s, various bits of linen, etc.

posted by deborah 31 August | 14:07

As unlikely as my story sounds, such incidents are not unusual for me. I kept my books, magazines and comics in immaculate condition, and my collections were sold to collectors and dealers Later in life, I combed used bookstores and comic shops for unrecognized collectibles. More than a few times, I have seen lots on ebay that most likely came from one of my collections or another. That I found the first book I ever owned, though, is pretty cool.

posted by Ardiril 31 August | 14:30

1924 Book of Knowledge that was my mother's and I had as a child from about age 5 or 6 when I got possession of it.

The oldest things I own are Ure's Dictionary and Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic addressed to Sir Walter Scott.

It seems odd to me that the oldest things I own (in both senses0 are books, but I've got a lot of books.

posted by warbaby 31 August | 14:53

I've got a "teddy tiger" that mom and I made when I was four. I've also got a blanket she crocheted for me when I was a baby, so 38 and 42 years...

But the oldest thing would have to be a book case that used to be a display case in my grandparents' grocery store in the '50's and '60's. It was in my parents' house when I left for college, and I took it with me.

posted by lysdexic 31 August | 16:26

I have a copy of A Friend is Someone Who Likes You that is inscribed, "To my baby Younger, June 1983". My mom gave it to me before I was born, so I think that's the oldest thing I have. I still love the book. The illustrations are darling.

posted by youngergirl44 31 August | 16:47

I don't know that it's the oldest thing, but certainly the most totemistic, as I've carted it with me everywhere I've ever lived. From my room as a kid, to my basement lair as a teen, to my college dorm, to my first apartment, to my first house, I've never been without Mr. Wiggle.

I don't know that he necessarily MEANS anything. He just makes me happy. But having had him around so long seems to have invested him with meaning unintentionally -- he's a symbol of continuity to me, guess.

posted by BitterOldPunk 31 August | 17:28

My oldest owned item..hmm, it would have to be my pink "dog" (I think it's a dog) that housed a music box that was given to me as a baby. I just turned 45 - the music box is still inside my blind, noseless, fur-missing dog, but I'd never get rid of it.

I'm another person with tons of family memorabilia lying around. The one thing that means the world to me is a family pedigree from my grandmother's side, published (self published, I think) in 1895, that traces my grandmothers side back to the 1600's. As a child, whenever visiting my grandparents in Maine, I always took it out, pouring over the family tree, reading the information. It was "lost" after my grandmother's passing...I was honored to be given it by one of my aunts after my grandfather passed, as it was found with my grandmothers people, presumably to keep it safe from one of my less-trustworthy aunts. Ah, family.

posted by redvixen 31 August | 18:42

Tough one. I think the mug in the shape of an elephant that says "All Gone" inside on the bottom. I remember as a little girl looking forward to the moment my milk would be gone and I could proudly announce aloud, "All Gone!"

posted by bearwife 31 August | 18:44

P.S. The elephant's ears are the handles. Yes, I needed a two handed mug when I was small!

PS number 2: I am a collector as well but have an evil stepmother -- no kidding -- who threw out every single thing in the room I grew up in, including the furniture and all my books, reportedly out the window into a giant dumpster. All but the high school yearbook and 2 framed photos of me as a child my half sister saved from the destruction. So I really love my old mug.

posted by bearwife 31 August | 18:48

I'm not sure. But possibly my favorite old thing is a plate with the alphabet in raised letters around the rim. pretty sure it was my Dad's when he was little, too. I learned the alphabet from that plate.

posted by theora55 31 August | 19:03

bearwife- the same thing happened to me when I went off to college. Except it was my real mother.

I have my father's desk from the 60s. I wish I had a good picture of it to post. It's no great beauty but it's built like a tank and has held up like a champion through two kids in high school and college.

I also have my grandmother's china hutch, and one china teacup that she passed on to me. I love them because she loved them. She was a farmer's daughter in the dusty plains of Texas but she got a few pretty things in her life and she appreciated them.

posted by toastedbeagle 01 September | 09:53

30 August 2011