My mother has the Great Closets of Holding or something and still has all our original Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica ships, playsets and figs and cool carry cases, all my Barbie stuff, all my brother’s GI Joe toys (that survived his “recreate a war zone” period, all his Tales from the Crypt comic books (in protective sleeves) and my paperdolls.
Into scrapbooks she has assembled every damn story, research paper, and poem we wrote, pictures of people that my brothers and I can no longer identify but Mom remembers they were ‘your best friend in second grade!’, select pieces of art, and every certificate and award we ever earned.
Into her Great Closets of Holding, I have placed my collection of original movie posters that I accumulated when I was working at a movie theater in Jr. High and High School. I swiped them all, including Star Wars and some older that I found in a storage closet through every movie that came out up until 1981.
Mom had someone come in and appraise all this stuff once for the insurance policy. After that, we were convinced she would not only never throw it out, but we would have to prove to her that we could take care of it before she would let us have any of it!
Not my mother, but my grandmother. She threw out my uncle’s baseball cards. Now, these weren’t just any baseball cards: these were ALL of them - from about 1950 through 1958. Nine complete sets, plus some extras :eek:. All filed carefully away and nearly untouched. Including Mantle’s rookie card. Three of 'em. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we know why this card is so valuable. The mothers threw 'em away.
We bought him a t-shirt a couple of years ago: “I’d be retired now, but my mother threw away my baseball cards.”
My mother threw out her own Shirley Temple doll she had as a child. She regretted it greatly. After that she tended to hold on to stuff and I got her Whitey Kurowksi-autographed baseball after she passed away. And you’ll only get that from me once you pry it out of my cold dead hands.
mom threw out lots of stuff, most of which the memories of have been repressed. if i had to come up with a specific example, i would say lincoln logs, GI Joe stuff or model cars. but she did save an awful lot… my family is a bunch of pack-rats, honestly, and manage to accumulate lots of stuff.
my wife and i were sitting on the couch last week, and i turned to her and said, "you know, i’m not EVER going to be able to throw away ANYTHING Miller draws or makes for me (miller is my son, 1 month old now). she looked at me and gave me a look that said she understood. she knows me pretty well and knows i can’t get rid of anything.
My mom is pretty good in this area, except that she threw out my Star Wars cards. The original ones with the blue border. The complete set. Of all the things she kept, I can’t figure out why she picked these to toss away.
Right after my parents split up my mother held a garage sale and sold a train set for a quarter, which Dad had saved since childhood and passed down to me. She also “lost” his diploma from graduate school and sold my bicycle because it was “broken.” The only thing wrong with it was a flat tire.
Took me four years to move in with Dad. Then she promptly dumped my coin collection, pocketed my savings account, gave away my record player, and stole my jewelry.
My mother throws everything away. Mother-in-law saves everything including the clothes Mr. Grace wore home from the hospital and all the cute things he made in school. What did my mother keep? The cap and gown I wore when I graduated from high school. She dropped out of high school so I guess these items mean something to her, but what about all the other stuff? We don’t have very many pictures and we don’t have the cute (ugly?) ornaments that we made as kids.
That bites! Some people just have no clue what other people think and want. My grandmother continued to give my mother paper dolls and their accoutrements, as well as other such items, well into 20s. Even after, get this, she was married with 2 chidren. Got me too, nothing like getting a nice big box from grandma for your 16th birthday, opening it up and finding a plastic truck inside.
On the plus side my parents know the value of not throwing away kids stuff. Probably as a result of my dad’s odler brother, who one day decided to take and sell a lot of stuff my dad had saved up. His train collection (with cars that were worth $100 each back in 1990) and all these antique papers he had from the late 19th century. He kept the money too. So as far as that goes I’ve never lost anything valuable ot special.
Hmm Arden, that may not have been the wisest move, going into the lions den and mentioning your awesome meat collection. Better keep your mom’s house a secret on penalty of death and the like.
My brothers and I had a fairly extensive (shared) set of Star Wars figures from the original trilogy, some with weapons, some vehicles, that Death Star thingy. They have disappeared in the last decade or so. My mother swears she didn’t throw them out and I believe her, but I think she gave them away to someone and forgot about it. She was never real clear on Star Trek vs. Star Wars. We still have the Millenium Falcon, though.
Oh, yeah, and she threw out my teddy bear when I was about 9 or so. She figured I didn’t want it anymore.
Not to rub it in, but…I still have my Death Star. That’s one thing my parents knew never to touch, since they realized the possible collectors ability that Star Wars toys would have, thus I still have the Death Star, and AT-AT, two X-Wings, Darth’s fighter, the Degobah system, the Ewok village, a speeder bike, a sand speeder, a few other things, and about 100 figures, all from the original releases. Unfortunately, I really played with them hard, so I have very few guns and lightsabers for the firuges, and some little stuff is missing from the playsets/vehicles.
are we perhaps cousins? That’s my dad’s story - Mantle & Maris rookie cards. All gone. loads of em. I love the t-shirt idea. Now my parents on the other hand are the opposite. I just found out that my mom kept a 25 year old caricature of me drawn at a school fair. My son is playing with my old legos & I’ve read him my old Dr. Seuss books.
Not a damn thing. I think she kept everything she owned from childhood to when she died at almost 70. I found all the gestetner sheets from when she taught way way back. It was a pain getting rid of everything.
I was a very insecure child, but instead of sucking my thumb, I had a pacifier. I even remember the day she did it, because she just plucked it right out of my mouth (I was about three) and she said I screamed for hours.
I blame her for the massive oral fixation I’ve had since then.
My mom threw away books she didn’t think I should be reading. I’d come home from school and find the Stephen King book I’d almost finished gone from my bookshelf. Anything “evil” like that was fair game. I kept most books in my locker at school after a few paperbacks had been tossed.
Later, my step-dad got into the act. When I got a car, he would sometimes go through the trunk when I wasn’t around and toss stuff out. A couple books got trashed that I’m still really pissed about because I can’t find them anymore:
A Rocky Horror Picture Show book, and a book of Beatles Lyrics, each one illustrated in the style of the Yellow Submarine movie (it had - GASP! - drawing of naked women!!!).
I’m so glad I’m a grown-up with my own house. I know it kills her to see some of the stuff I have now.
Well, to be fair to Grandmama, it was partly my uncle’s fault. She was moving, and told both of the kids that, if there was anything in the old place they wanted, to lay claim to it now. He forgot the cards were there. Still, it was the late 60s - they were worth something THEN. As the wife and mother of huge baseball fans, she might have realized what she had.
She also tossed his soldiers. Metal ones. Worth big bux these days.
