This is truly mundane and pointless, but I feel like an ass. I just lost something - a pen, to be specific - that was important to me. It was my own damn fault, too, which makes it that much more upsetting. It was a nice pen my grandmother, now deceased, had given to me for my birthday when I was very, very young. It was used to sign the guestbook at my grandmother’s funeral, at my highschool and college and grad school graduation, and was also used to sign our wedding guestbook, and I really liked the damned thing. After the wedding, my sister grabbed it to make sure it wasn’t forgotten. She kept forgetting to send it to me, then she sent me a package for my birthday and tossed it in to the package in a big wad of tissue paper that looked like filler, along with two wrapped packages. I felt the tissue paper just in case, and it didn’t feel like there was anything in there, so I tossed the envelope into the recycling, and now it’s gone. My sister called me today to make sure I got it, and my heart just sank.
It’s stupid the things you get attached to. If my grandmother hadn’t given it to me, it’d be just a nice pen, but otherwise more or less without value. Dammit.
I know exactly what you mean, and it really stinks, doesn’t it?
My wife & myself have moved a number of times since we got married, to the point where we have lost all of our wedding gifts! (No biggies - it was a very relaxed wedding; we even bade folks to NOT give us gifts, but we acquired tchotchkes anyways…)
One year I sold my guitar to buy Christmas gifts, but the money was spent buying a couple of rounds of drinks…
Had all my high-school era photos stored in my folk’s basement - but they had a flood two winters ago, and the photos were destroyed…
Recently, I lost a nice, plain sterling silver tie clip… I know it’s around the apartment somewhere, but the cats must have been playing with it, so it could be just about anywhere!
Awww… now I’m bumming!
One day while I was driving to work, I looked down and realized I had forgot to take off my birthstone ring. I took it off in my car and threw it in a cup I kept all my change in. I forgot it was in there. When the pony express people were stopping cars and asking for donations, I dumped the change cup into their bucket. A few days later, I realized that the ring was still in the cup.
Some years ago I lost my high school ring. Definitely not valuable, but it would be nice to have. If anybody finds a Laker High ring from '86 with the initials RLC, let me know!
About a week ago. An inexpensive but pretty little birthstone ring that Mr. S had given me this spring. Suffice it to say that it got flushed in a public restroom and I didn’t realize it until the next day.
It was special not only by virtue of being a gift (I had always wanted to have an emerald ring that was a gift from him), but because Mr. S had pointed it out to me and it was a design I would probably not have chosen otherwise. Also because we bought it at the same jeweler’s where we got our wedding rings. I may be able to replace it in the same style, as I think it was a"general stock" type ring, but I won’t be able to go and see for a few weeks. I did tell Mr. S that I’d pick up the bill this time.
One year on my son’s Christening I was cleaning up after all the food was cooked and ready to go. I was in sich a rush. My now ex-husband was cleaning the living room closet for coats and asked me if I wanted this pocketbook that was just hanging around. I told him to just keep it and he kept bugging me so I told him to chuck it.
It held an 8 mil. film of me and my mother when I was 5 or 6 years old. She had died when I was 15 and I have no baby pictures.
The cameo set from my granmothers engagement ring. Out of the ring it kind of resembled a wad of bubble gum. I was packing to move from one house to another and put my rings in my purse for safe keeping. Later went to get something out of my purse and found the ring without the cameo. I was just sick and still am. I sat down on the floor and cried. I still have the ring and may someday have something else put in it.
I was 11 when my father died. A few months later, a tropical storm conspired with a broken sump pump to flood our basement. We didn’t lose anything really valuable, but just about all our Christmas tree ornaments were destroyed - things we had used as long as I could remember, and that my parents had accumulated over years of holidays, and that held feelings and memories of all our Christmases past.
That first Christmas after he died was doubly hard for my mom; not only was she alone with four kids to raise but so many of her reminders of happier times were gone as well.
Later, when I was 17, I was out fishing and my dad’s high school ring slipped off my finger and into the river. I searched for hours and never found it. If anyone in Westen Mass ever comes across a 1931 Buckley High School ring, email me, ok?
My great aunt made hooked rugs and she made one just for me when I was young. I wasn’t much of a girly-type girl and she knew that so the rug design was of a tiger. It wasn’t very big, maybe two feet wide, a bit longer. I loved that rug. Sat on it whenever I watched tv. It got put away as I grew older but I dug it out of storage when I left home. Somehow I lost it between moves though for the life of me I could never figure out how. I almost never lose things. My aunt’s long gone now and I miss the rug almost as much as I miss her.
I was a budding teen-aged photographer in 1964 when the big earthquake hit Anchorage. My camera was loaded with Tri-X and I shot nothing but B&W. The day was traumatic, and I captured a lot of terrific images starkly contrasting with the snow on the ground. The photos were praised by all who saw them and I had them for years, but never put them in an album.
They disappeared, negatives and all, during a move when I was in the military and it really bummed me out. I suppose some rat bastard is making money off of them somewhere.
I guess I’m not the only one who gets attached to things that are really just…stuff, but have a lot of meaning. While I’m glad to hear that, all these stories about losting them are heartbreaking! But, I asked for it.
I saw a man at the grocery store the other day looking around. Seems his wife pulled off her glove and her ring went flying. They were offering a $1000 reward, even though they didn’t know what the ring was worth. He said his wife was up all night crying. I felt very bad for her. I glanced around for her ring, but my guess is it got caught up in someone’s tire tread, never to be seen again.
Specifically, the one we took to Woodstock '94. The one with the pictures of me walking around wearing nothing but sneakers and a strategically-placed fanny pack.
Damn, I wish I had some documentation of that weekend.
My Aunt Ida gave my Mom a sterling baby spoon in her silver pattern when I was born. All I remember of it was that it was the sugar spoon on our kitchen table for years.
When I moved away, Mom gave me the spoon, which I used as a sugar spoon, too. When I moved in May, I could not find any silverware fo awhile, so I used that spoon. I have a friend who cleans up for me: she obviously thought she’d wash it. Well, she washed it in the side of the sink with the garbage disposal. When she dumped the washpan, the spoon went down the disposal.
I, of course, had no idea that the thing was in there the next morning until I ground it up. I was absolutely heartbroken. I never even thought about that spoon until I pulled it out of the disposal with great gouges in it.
I went online and found out Mom’s silver pattern was discontinued. If I could find one, a replacement would cost me almost $100.
I finally found a silversmith who repaired it for me (for $50.00). I was absurdly happy to haave it back again. In the meantime, I found one on ebay and now use that one as my sugar spoon while my precious on is in my jewelry box.
I am lucky to have been able to retrieve my lost spoon. I feel for anyone who loses something like this.
I lost my moon and star necklace last year. My ex-boyfriend bought it at a swapmeet for me back in '76. I wore it all the time. After we broke up, I only wore it sporadically but as we’d stayed really good friends I still had a lot of attatchment to it. By the time he passed away it was the only thing I had left that he’d given me.
I usually wore it around Halloween as part of my costume and last year I just kept wearing it for several weeks. I lost it somewhere on the street. It wasn’t worth anything at all. The metal was that cheap white stuff and the gold colour had to be repainted periodically. (I’ve got a very old bottle of gold leaf) I think it cost about a buck when we got it. I’d give just about anything to get it back. I guess some kid probably picked it up.
