Strange things you've kept

Just took my 48 year old wedding dress to an amateur dramatics group for their wardrobe. Have kept it all these years, but realise nobody will want it.

I also have a wool baby vest, now 42 years old. It's not knitted. Chilprufe and M and S sold them. I remember the days when children wore cotton vests in summer, and wool in winter.

Just thought of something else! I have a cardboard 'medal' that DD 2 gave me on the occasion of our silver wedding. It is for long and outstanding service. Wondering what I'll gat when our Golden Wedding comes round in a couple of years!

Tudorrose I have many old ornaments my mother started collecting in 1941 when she and my dad married. Over the years, storage in hot lofts in the US faded them, and tissue has stuck, etc. But I still put them on as I brought them to the UK.

I found some Kodak colour slides my dad had taken Christmas 1951. I didn't even know they had colour slides back then. Fun to see the tree with the ornaments (even the rug which my parents used all their lives together.) This is one of me and my brother. He just died last April and I enjoy looking at these old slides and glad I kept them and the ornaments!

I found a pair of yellow swimming trunks belonging to my son, complete with swimming badges. He has two children of his own now.

I gave them to him for his oldest to wear! Only in the garden though not in the pool.

Just wondered, why do we say in English 'pair' when there is only one?

When I was 16 yrs old my cousin persuaded me to have my hair cut. My Mother went mad as it had been right down to my waist. I had the plait made in to a hair piece, but I have never worn it. Maybe I should give it to the cancer care people so someone can benefit?

I also have a beautiful lace Christening set that was used for the first time 52yrs ago. All the babies in the family since have had something from it, the dress, the shawl, the shoes, the hat. It is now wrapped up again, since the shawl was used this year, ready for the next baby. There is also a handmade quilt with a pixie embroidered on the front. So pretty and so well made by a much loved Great Great Aunty.

I have one of my dad's Cuban Montecristo cigars, still in the wrapper.
Dad died 28 years ago, aged 61, and I didn't know mum had kept the cigar until I was sorting out her house after her death 7 years ago and found it in her bedside cabinet.
I also have a tatty old copy of 'Pear's Cyclopaedia' from 1924. My Grandparents received it as a wedding present, and I spent many happy hours sitting with grandad, having my head filled with 'useless information' which is only actually useless until I need it, which I frequently do!

Actually Absent, you reminded me. I have been wearing my nana's wedding ring now for years on the middle finger of my right hand. We also have the name tag from a long dead Dog. Forgot all about those, I suppose they are just there, part of who we are.

I have a white baby dress with silk sweet peas appliqued onto it that both my daughters wore, plus a yellow crochet dress. One brownie dress with badges sewn on. A folder of drawings, home made Mothers day cards, cartoons of funny family happenings and Christmases done by my nephew, plus play scripts and programmes written by the collective family young to perform for their Christmas entertainment. When I moved this year I gave them their teddies, boxes of fossils and love letters to keep for themselves.
I also have my Dad's hand tools and an Exmoor Hunt tobacco tin and one of his 30s style striped cravats. Also a 30s style blue enamel and silver powder compact that he gave my Mum when they were courting.

i have both my kids' first pair of shoes, my sons comfort blanket,my mother's wedding hat when my sister got married (heaven knows why I kept it!) cards my kids made when little, a small bottle of chippings from the Blue John mine in Derbyshire (went as a teenager), my daughter's cabbage patch doll (now somewhat scruffy), a WW1 medal (not sure where it came from!), the armbands my Dad used to wear to keep his shirt sleeves up, my mother's wedding ring (she had to have it cut in two to get it off her finger, somewhat symbolic of their marriage I think!) Although i have had several clear outs since reading the GN thread from a couple of months ago, it is so hard to part with these objects with memories.

Forgot to say I have a very old tatty copy of 'Everything Within'. Anyone else remember these?

I still hang ornaments on the tree that are ancient, handed down from my mum. I have some of my daughters teeth and even a few of my own milk teeth too!
My mum has a vast collection of teapots, she has asked my siblings if they want them & they don't! She has never asked me & I think she knows the answer! I suggested she sells them as a job lot.
Mum has several things that belonged to her father (he died during ww2 when she was too small to remember him) and she has things that belonged to her grandparents too!
Beautiful memories.
I do think by the time my dgd is grown she won't want stuff I've cherished ?

The gold watch given to my dad on his retirement. My brother inherited when he died 6 years later . Sadly, he died earlier this year and my SIIL has insisted I have it as they had no children . It is doubly precious . I occasionally wear it .
My mothers wedding and engagement rings which I often wear
Lots of mementoes from my DCs childhoods-locks of hair, first shoes The diaries I kept in labour and for the first year of each of their lives

I have a "gate bracelet" given to me on my 18th which had been My Granny's 21st Birthday Present, Granddad's WWI medals , call-up papers. diary his mother gave him with religious quotes each week & a couple of photos (DD will probably sell them as she never knew him). DF's little broach which he gave DM whilst doing his National Service.

I have a small suitcase with DD's 1st shoes, shawl & cot blanket, hair brush (think that was for me).

I do keep going through my "mementos" every so often as I have things which evoke memories for me but not for DD

I feel sorry for my kids when I slip off this mortal coil, they are going to find some strange memorabilia . Two pairs of baby shoes, several baby teeth , a Mothercare vest , filled exercise books from Primary school, odd drawings and projects including various things made for Mother's Day. I also have every letter I wrote to my MIL from 1978 - 1984 when I lived in New York, she passed them to me. I have other family letters of parents and.grandparents long gone. As a child we moved virtually every year so there is nothing of my childhood other then photos. That's probably why I keep these memories.

Pair of pink baby nail scissors. Kids now 36 and 38! Don't know why as not kept much else as I'm not really a sentimental person.

A Brownie badge which I failed to sew on to DD's uniform - I found it at the bottom of the sewing box the other day
Also in the box is a little felt needlecase I made at school when I was 8.

Plus many other things far too numerous to mention.

grannybuy, there is an organisation who want wedding dresses, even mine from 1970 - The National Needlework Archive at The Old Chapel on Greenham Common. If you aren't ready to donate it they will photo & record details. They are also interested in any bridal wear, especially if it is of it's time & other old clothes & accessories. They were even interested in an old paint spattered ragged American quilt which was my MiL's because of the unusaul way it was constructed. They adviseon how to store old items & their advice is, "If you are going to keep it then keep it well" - otherwise see if they'd be interested. www.nationalneedleworkarchive.org.uk/

Thank you Gadaboutgran, I also have my MIL's which is from the 1930's. It's in storage, as we're 'between houses' at the moment, but I'll contact them when I get it back.

Morgana, is that Newnes Everything Within/ if so I also have a copy that was my Mum's.

Oh and I also have an 'ermine' clutch purse with diamonte clip of Mum's, and a pretty necklace of crystals and silvery chain that is hallmarked 'platignum'?

I'm not sentimental about "things" but I do have a wee cardigan that my 2 and a half pound son was given by a lady in the next room in the maternity ward ,she knitted it overnight for him while she was in labour with her baby.I also have the hats he and his sister wore home from hospital( he was 4 and a half pound by then and the hat would fit a very small baby doll) and a pair of little ducks that were bought as pram ornaments foor my first daughter who only lived 3 days and 21 hours .Everything else gets taken to tip ,sent to charity shops or passed on to anyone who wants it

Please don't mock - but a whisker from my very first cat over 40 years ago.

I have my mum's compact and her lipstick. The latter was in a drawer in the bedroom. My four year old GD came downstairs wearing the lipstick! I have now moved it to the bathroom cabinet. My mum would chuckle if she knew who'd end up wearing her lipstick