Stuff. Weirdest stuff? Oldest stuff?

[CuppaJoe]

Perhaps the oldest and oddest thing I have is a bottle that I picked up on my grandparent's abandoned farm.
"Dr. T. W. Graydon, Cincinnati, O., Diseases of the Lungs....

Wonder if it was THE cure? Don't know if it has re-sale value but I've seen that kind of thing displayed from excavation sites in newer buildings. It's fun to look at the stuff that pops up and survives, broken china, spoons, old dolls, etc.

The oldest thing I have was my grandmother's locket; I have a photo of her wearing it in 1913 when mom was a baby; it has mom's baby teeth marks on it.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Wierd: My "Daily Manual" prayer book inscribed in gold, "In rememberance of my solemn profession of faith, May 7, 1950". Inside are all the mass cards of my deceased relatives going back to 1952. Included are the mass cards for my mom and dad. Everytime I go to mass, I take this book and reread the mass cards. Don't know why I do this.

Neat: A hand made and hand carved box made of mahogany. My dad and I made it for a Boy Scout project in 1947. It is still like new and it's just filled with momentos and misc junk from my past. Everytime I see it I think of him. Wish I could be the father he was.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Two pennies mashed together by a railroad train from when I was about eight.

A glass piggy bank stuffed with pennies from the mid-60's. The thing must weigh 15 pounds.

Wast34, I'll bet I mashed a couple hundred pennies in my day. Wish I had just one of them. Every day the "dinkie" (steam locomotive) came into town to haul out manufactured goods. One way in and one way out of town. A lot of kids did this and it's a wonder no one ever got hurt.

 

[Keim]

Oldest: Several meiocene era plant fossils. About 100 million years or so.
Old and weird: Restored 1910 wall phone that works on modern phone lines (yes I use it)
Weird: Homemade tube pre-amp, tube monoblock amps, and tube phono pre-amp
Just plain weird: Me

 

[IndependentlyPoor]

Maybe not the oldest or weirdest, but definitely the most disturbing thing I have is my father's photo album from WWII. He was in the first occupation troops in Tokyo after the war. They were actually at sea, on the way over when the atomic bombs fell. They boarded the troop carriers expecting to be the invading army. (I hope that I am remembering that correctly.) There were also even more horrifying photos from Nagasaki, but they have disappeared.

I also have a bunch of souvenirs he shipped back, including a really garish Satsuma ware tea set. (Photo from eBay. There are tons of these around.)

I believe that these were made for selling to the troops and export.
But some of the stuff is pretty. Below are two sake bottles. The little bird on top of the left one warbles and whistles when you pour from it.

I put together a photo album of these because I thought they were worth sharing, and to honor my parents who paid for five years at an expensive private university with only a lower-middle-class salary without complaint; not even when I uttered the dreaded words: graduate school.
Here's the link.
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/members/14146-albums55.html

 

[heyduke]

I put together a photo album of these because I thought they were worth sharing, and to honor my parents who paid for five years at an expensive private university with only a lower-middle-class salary without complaint; not even when I uttered the dreaded words: graduate school.
Here's the link.
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/members/14146-albums55.html

beautiful stuff consider the circumstances...

 

[Glo]

I have a lock of hair from my first haircut; I'm 62.

 

[happy2bretired]

I have a lock of hair from my first haircut; I'm 62.

That reminds me. I have my mothers hair tucked away. I have no idea how old she was when the long pony tail thing was cut off, but it probably was when she went from long girlish hair to the more modern style of the 1920s. Why I keep it, I don't know. I did show it to my daughter to show her that my mothers hair was about the same color as hers. My daughter was totally disgusted with it. I actually think it's kinda neat in a weird sort of way.

 

[Keim]

When we cleaned out my grandma's house we found the same thing. I looked at mom and said "You wanna keep it?" And she did! Packrat, my mother is...

 

[calmloki]

Read that back in the pocket watch/civil war days young women would plait a watch "chain" for their beaus or husbands from their long hair. A way of marking their territory?

 

[deserat]

Oldest - my father gave me some rocks which he "lifted" from a Roman bath when he was in high school (he went to junior high school in Morocco and high school in England) - they were lying there and were probably part of a mosaic. I have no idea where he got them and have been intending to make a dish or something out of them. I know now, after having visited many Roman ruins, that the mosaics and materials are fairly rare.

Weirdest - my godfather was a civil engineer in Iran during the Shah's regime. When I visited him in Chile, he handed me some very interesting mineral 'rocks' which were miniature crystals. He found them when he was digging for canals, buildings, etc. We both surmise they are a metal or some mineral which grew in crystalline fashion.

 

[FIREd]

Oldest things:

A set of sterling silver spoons and forks crafted in France in 1847. They are very large and heavy and in very good condition for being 160 year old. I also have a set of dinner knives dating from circa 1850, made of carbon steel blades and ivory handles, also from France.

A "Napoleon" gold coin dating from 1868. It is still in good condition.

Several books dating from the 19th century. One of them dates from 1849 though I have a book which is probably even older (no date but likely 1821-1850 given the subject).

 

[bbbamI]

I have a rock.

 

[REWahoo]

I have 5 acres of rocks. Although I haven't had them tested, I'm pretty sure they are several million years old.

 

[bbbamI]

Show off...

 

[CuppaJoe]

My house is built upon a rock, bedrock, that is; that matters, we hope, here in earthquake country.

 

[bbbamI]

Yabba Dabba Dooooooooooo

 

[CuppaJoe]

Yabba Dabba Dooooooooooo

 

[Ronstar]

I have an 1853 penny in the bank safety deposit box. I thought DW was the oldest thing in the house, but I remembered the "Ballhawk", a 1940's 2 fingered baseball glove that my dad gave me.