View Full Version : The value of "Sentimental" things.
Not introducing this thread topic as a means of coming up with actual dollar figures as to special things we have (in our possession) or have been given or received from special people (family) over the years (who are gone now), but instead as a means of establishing how precious sentimental things are to you.
For example, my husband was given a rifle by an uncle of his way back when he was a young child, and just the other day he pulled it out to clean it and polish it and I asked him, "would you ever sell it"? "No" he replied, "I won't even hand it over to a gunsmith to have it re-blued and finished".
Speaking for myself, a great grandmother of mine passed down a really pretty fine China set to me a few years before she passed away and although I never use it, I will never part with it.
I am so 'not' sentimental about things and wish I were. I have a few things passed down from previous generations but keep them just because I don't want to get rid of them, I have no sentimental attachment to them. All that said, I do have a small, brown pill bottle that my father carried in his pocket that contained nitroglycerin pills for angina. The cap is metal (that old) with dents and the white color of the cap is mostly rubbed off. Absolutely no dollar value to the little pill bottle but I will never get rid of it.
I'm not particularly sentimental, but I do have a few things with which I will not part easily. My grandfather's summer hat (the winter hat went to my nephew). Pampy would never go anywhere without being properly dressed, and that included a hat. A broken Hummel from Mom that I love and has always been broken since I was a kid. It's a girl feeding a deer, and I have a deep love for animals. I have a few of my grandmother's wine glasses- I don't recall seeing her even drink wine when I was a kid. I have this ratty old teddy bear given to me by my godparents when I was 3 and hospitalized for surgery. And I have this dress I designed and sewed in high school that hasn't fit for 35 years, but I keep because it reminds me of how glamourous I felt walking into the dance wearing that dress.
But pretty much everything else in my house is practical and or beautiful (the wine glasses are practical, come to think of it).
Your stories are simply wonderful Goldensmom and Herbgeek!
Sometimes I wish I could be more relaxed with using certain things (heirlooms) I have, like my grandmothers china set. I believe I'd get far more enjoyment out of them and feel enriched by using them, but the thought of damage or breakage seems to win me over preventing me from letting my hair down and enjoying/using what I have.
In many ways I love practicality. Things I can use, things I can relax around and feel comfortable around, things that make me feel good, yet there's a side of me (related to some of my things) that speaks- "do not touch", and I hate that.
Well, I like the things that are both beautiful and useable and that have associative value as well.
For me, that's my great aunt's diamond ring from 1918--it is big and sparkly and an eye catcher. I didn't know her, but my mom passed on many stories about her. I also like it because the center diamond has two flaws, a scratch and a chip--but you can't see them so only I could identify this ring to the police were it ever stolen.
I've got a wonderful cranberry glass pickle castor from one a long dead relative, but I don't use that because I don't really use any of my Victorian dinnerware but for rare occasions.
For ten years DH wore my dead dad's winter jacket. It was a bright jazzy color, not something an old man would normally have, and DH got lots of compliments on it from the gay men around here. I was sad when it became stained and had to go.
I've been purging my house for the past year, and the only thing that belonged to my mother that I got rid of and still think about--while not really regretting it--is a spongewear pitcher. I like it because it was pretty and useful (I kept it by the stove where it held long handled utensils.) But in the end I got rid of it because I was afraid that it would tumble off and break, and also because it's not something we had in the house when I was growing up, she aquired it much later. Spongewear pitchers are incredibly popular and I sold it for $45, a STEAL for someone. I wanted it to go to someone who would take care of it. It actually went within the first hour of my sale.
I've thought about this topic before as I can't seem to name even one item that I am sentimental about. I sometimes feel like surely there is ONE thing I can think of, but I can't:-)
Not even anything from your kids? Picture them grown and gone--is there an artifact you'd keep of theirs? What about something funny?
I've got some amusing things from both my brother and DH and someday I'm going to torment them with it. I"ve got a 40 year old letter to Santa from my brother where he lists things he wants and says that he will try to be nice to me, his sister.
I've got a photo that DH took to prove a point in an, err, disagreement he and I had. It's a photo of a dozen pairs of scissors lined up on the kitchen counter, this was after I was running around the house wailing becase "we never have any scissors around here!"
I've got a diagram DH drew to remind me how to cut a pie. He was annoyed one day when I sort of ruined a pie that he had made by cutting it in weird angles.
But I'm not very sentimental. While I keep too much crap around, it's not because I have feelings for it. It's kind of a voice in my head saying that I "should" feel thus and so.
A beautiful entry Iris. Cranberry Glass, oh my... (A real weakness of mine). That, and Carnival Glass. Your husband sounds like such a panic Iris! He sure has your number!!! ROTFLMAO! :)
Reyes. I can't imaging going through life and not being sentimental about (at least) one thing. Pictures, old 8mm family movies, the first baby blanket you wrapped your children in...
Okay, I played the what if my home caught on fire what would I take thing...and I have photo albums that I would most certainly want. I have put the albums together for the kids and I would be very sad to see them go. Okay, I feel better now:-)
I'd never get rid of thelove letters my husband has written me.
Okay, I played the what if my home caught on fire what would I take thing...and I have photo albums that I would most certainly want. I have put the albums together for the kids and I would be very sad to see them go. Okay, I feel better now:-)
yes, you are not a total werido after all!:)
I have many sentimental things I could NEVER part with. Number ONE is my grandmother's prospecting pants. I have them hanging in our living room (quite a conversation starter :laff:). Then there are the paintings my Mom painted, a lithograph my Dad made, an old wind up wooden clock that belonged to my grandmother, an old family Bible from my other grandmother, Mom's tea set that was given to her by her Mom when she got engaged to Dad, and of course family photos. These items are more valuable to me than anything else I own - but monetarily, they aren't worth anything.
Two things that have great personal value come immediately to mind: 1) I have the silver menorah that my grandfather used as a little boy in Germany (my grandparents emigrated from [fled] Germany in 1935). I use this every Hanuakkah. 2) I wear my great-great-great (yes, 3x) grandmother's pinky ring always. It's gold, worn quite thin, with a tiny integral heart, and it isn't even round any more. My grandfather gave it to my mom for me when I was born (I'm the youngest girl in my generation). I remember looking at it and trying it on regularly as a child, desperate for it to fit.
I am very fortunate to have a lot of my grandparents' things, collected over many years of living in Indonesia and the Philippeans, in my house. In fact, these things (masks, paintings, lamps, coffee table) form the backbone of my decorating scheme (I doubt I would even have a decorating scheme if I hadn't inherited these items). That said, I am by nature quite practical and don't like a lot of clutter around, sentimental or not. So, things I keep need to be useful (the coffee table gets heavily used) or at least be able to hang on the wall, out of the way.
IshbelRobertson
2-2-11, 5:21pm
I have a LOT of sentimental items - some of which I love and use - some of which I have been 'left' with as the senior member of my generation!
I have some Jacobean furniture - left to me as the oldest child. It's not my taste, and not my siblings' either - so it sits in one of the guest rooms of my house, simply because I can't bring myself to sell what has been in my family for hundreds and hundreds of years!
I've got lots of silver and glass and jewellry and china and paintings - some of which I'm hoping to palm off on my own children! I've added to the silver and the glass. I collect lalique glass, both antique and modern.
I suppose that's the price you pay when your family accumulate and have never left these shores - the stuff never gets winnowed out.
I thought that I've been getting LESS sentimental, especially with regards to items that are attached to memories or people, but reading you guys, I have a long way to go. I have a very difficult time parting with things that I'm sentimental about--here's a partial list of examples:
--A big old desk that my great-aunt had in her house. It does not match much in my house, but I won't get rid of it.
--Every letter that friends/family ever sent me. I just recently broke down and threw out cards that were simply signed by people with no note, but I have kept every other letter.
--Some of my children's clothes from when they were young--not all of them of course, but one or two favorites.
--The last thing my mother gave me--she snatched a Catholic Digest from the nursing home she lived in because the cover story was Anne Frank, and she knew how much I love Anne Frank. I still have it (in my great-aunt's old desk). I won't throw it out.
--Playbills and ticket stubs from theatre outings I've been to over the years.
Man, I could go on and on. The only time I've had a purge of stuff was when we had a flood in the basement and some things were ruined (some irreplaceable family photos, too, I regret to say).
I've been thinking maybe I should get a really good scanner, like NeatReceipts and just scan all this stuff and throw it away, but that's not the same as the real thing. I often think my attachment to these things is part sentiment, part love of being able to trace life history. I sometimes think I should have been a curator or something.
Oh is this ever wonderful hearing about and reading about your stories. I really like this. I know in speaking for myself there's a sense of comfort I get from something old, something used, something passed down.
Not even anything from your kids? Picture them grown and gone--is there an artifact you'd keep of theirs? What about something funny?
Not grown and gone, but dead and gone. I have things from my son that I just can't get rid of. At the foot of my bed, on a small trunk are t-shirts. Got rid of most of his clothing, but can't seem to get rid of those t-shirts. And school papers, little notes, pictures he drew (he definitely had his own style- lol).
It's amazing what becomes sentimental when it is all you have left.
I'm sentimental about the Royal Doulton Blithe Morning figurine. It belonged to my grandmother.
I am sentimental about some books. I bought copies of books I had as a child: 365 Bedtimes Stories by Nan Gilbert, Time Life Series Christmas books from the 1960's. I'm also sentimental about books I read to my own children: books by Shirley Hughes and Helen Oxenbury, the Berenstain Bears books, the Magic School Bus books, the 20th Century Book of Children's Literature.
happystuff, that's a situation I can see myself being sentimental in too. Normally I'm really not that sentimental and I tend to see the passing of older people as mostly just the way life is, but my kids are a different story.
For someone who isn't sentimental I'm surrounded by heirlooms, mostly practical ones. When I took over the family house I took over a lot of that stuff too. I think having felt the burden of curating the past has helped me release whatever sentimentality I had. Sorting through every first grade spelling test I ever took, my sister's baby teeth, the pewter armadillo she got on her trip to Texas and every pair of ballet shoes she ever wore cured me.
Even, as Ishbel talked about, the furniture. Someday this chair I am sitting in will be 100 years old and have belonged to someone's great-grandma (me). I hope that doesn't make them feel obligated to it. I got it because it is a good height for me to work at my computer at the breakfast bar in the kitchen. If itdoesn't serve that function for someone in the future I hope they let it go and get on with their lives.
I like the stuff I actually use. I have a coffee mug I took from my grandma's house. It is part of a hiddeous set of 1970s dishes, but on it's own it's about 2/3 less hiddeous than the entire set was together. By itself it's just quirky looking. It does occasionally remind me of sitting in Grandma's kitchen eating cereal and milk from a bag (I always thought that was weird and cool as we didn't have that in MN) or once in a while, her orange rolls. I think I'd be even more sentimental for her orange roll recipe, though. Food is one of those things I do get sentimental about.
Happystuff, Anne Lee, and Stella, your additions are wonderful! :) Makes for such a special Sunday morning reading about everyone's thoughts and things.
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