# What item have you carried on your person for the longest time?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 10, 2006, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848 "2006-03-10T16:53:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/1 "2006-03-10T16:53:49Z")
Spurred by a discussion about the [Body Worlds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Worlds) show opening here today, I showed a co-worker my organ donor card.
I signed the card on May 28, 1975, six days after I turned 18, and it’s been with me ever since.
What single item have you carried in your pockets, wallet or purse for the longest time?
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/2 "2006-03-10T16:56:03Z")
My original social security card. The information is typed into it from a manual typewriter. Let’s see…I had to get it in order to get a job, so that would have been 1971.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/3 "2006-03-10T16:57:26Z")
I’ve got my one-year-clean keychain from NA, which I’ve had for 19 years. It still glows in the dark!
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### Author:  [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/4 "2006-03-10T16:58:40Z")
I have my old dog’s tag (“My name is ZEKE. I belong to [jackelope].”) on my keychain. I got it for her back in 1995, but it’s only been on my keychain since she died in 2003.
That’s about it; I don’t really hang on to possessions much.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/5 "2006-03-10T16:59:23Z")
My National ID, unless you think it doesn’t count because we replace it every few years. I also don’t carry it on my the whole time.
If the ID doesn’t count, then my watch, which I got 12 years ago. I take it off often but then it goes into a pocket, so it’s still on my person.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/6 "2006-03-10T17:07:46Z")
Not counting jewelry…probably my keyring. I’ve used the same ring for the last 34 years. Different keys, same ring.
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### Author:  [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/7 "2006-03-10T17:21:29Z")
A broken skeleton key on my keyring. It hasn’t always been broken though. I threw it (with the rest of the keys) at this doctor who refused to admit my ex girfriend into the mental hospital because they didn’t like her insurnace. Two days later I drug her up there after she tried to overdose on these sleeping pills that they gave her (a severly depressed person.) She jumped out of the car and ran towards the overpass on the interstate. She made it.
I left it on there to remind me that there are some things you just can’t fix.
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### Author:  [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/8 "2006-03-10T17:22:50Z")
Oh and I have had the same crappy wallet for years and years. I keep swearing I am going to get another one but I never do.
🙂
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### Author:  [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/9 "2006-03-10T17:28:37Z")
My wedding ring, 9 years this April. Second would be my pocket knives, but those get replaced every few years.
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### Author:  [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/10 "2006-03-10T17:33:49Z")
I used to have a pencil from the 6th grade that I still used (and carried around with me), but I seem to have lost it last year ☹
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/11 "2006-03-10T17:36:49Z")
My social security card, from 1975. People who see it are amazed that I still have the original.
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/12 "2006-03-10T17:37:40Z")
I have the housekey from my childhood home on my keyring. I would have gotten it when I was considered mature enough to handle it, so probably about 22 years ago.
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/13 "2006-03-10T18:08:16Z")
I stopped carrying my Social Security card around with me about a year ago, otherwise that would win (for me). 🙂 Instead, the oldest item is…
> [@Frank](#):
>
> my organ donor card
I signed mine on 8/29/88, three weeks before my 17th birthday. It has the Reader’s Digest logo on the front, and my witnesses were my mom and brother. I don’t remember exactly when I laminated it, but it was probably around '94 (the earliest I remember having access to a laminator).
It predates the second-oldest item by a year and three weeks: my FCC license, granted 10/13/89 (three weeks after my 18th birthday).
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### Author:  [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/14 "2006-03-10T18:18:04Z")
The steel pins I have in my leg since 1984.
I have my original Social Sercurity card but the accident that gave me the pins made me start carrying a duplicate.
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### Author:  [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/15 "2006-03-10T18:43:16Z")
I have and still use a sample size Excedrin bottle from when I first registered for college in 1975.
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/16 "2006-03-10T19:33:22Z")
I’ve got a “lucky” Canadian $1 in my wallet from travels there in 1988. It’s next to a Jamaica $5 from a trip in 1990. The wallets wear out and I keep transferring these bills from one to the next, although I really couldn’t tell you why.
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### Author:  [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/17 "2006-03-10T19:37:51Z")
> [@gigi](#):
>
> I have the housekey from my childhood home on my keyring. I would have gotten it when I was considered mature enough to handle it, so probably about 22 years ago.
Yeah, I’ve got one too. Let’s see, we moved to that house when I was in sixth grade, which is what 11? So I’ve had it 27 years.
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### Author:  [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/18 "2006-03-10T19:40:19Z")
I have my Social Security card with me as well, but I can’t tell if it’s the original. I sort of doubt it. It does look like it was done with a typewriter, however. There’s no date on mine.
I know I’ve carried it with me for over 10 years, though.
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### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/19 "2006-03-10T21:14:50Z")
I have a key ring my first girfriend gave me, Ohhhh, 17 years ago. But my Social Security card is probably older. I can’t imagin not having them on me outside of my apartment.
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### Author:  [@Wensleydale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wensleydale)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-item-have-you-carried-on-your-person-for-the-longest-time/347848/20 "2006-03-10T21:19:11Z")
My wallet is by far the oldest thing (bought in 2000 ) as my drivers license, credit card etc have all been replaced in the last three four years. My wallet though needs to be replaced.
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