What stuff have you lost and really missed?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Physical stuff, people, not coy jokes about your marbles or your cherry.

Thing #1, two boxes of my artwork and writing from age 9 through college. I don’t know why I started saving things when I started drawing, and a lot of stuff didn’t get saved, but I had two copier paper boxes full of spirals, then sketchpads. When I got to a point where I was pulling my hair out because I - Could - Not - Get - It - On - Paper and had just about decided to give up because I never would, I could sit down and start going through my old drawings and see just how much I improved, even in the course of one sketchpad.

When my parents got ready to sell the house I grew up in, my mom called us home to pitch and to save. I told her specifically “save these two boxes,” and she agreed. All stuff to be saved went into storage. All stuff to be pitched went in the dumpster. When I visited a few weeks later, and we went to the storage place, my two boxes were nowhere to be seen. Somehow, they had been tossed.

Now, I know my mother would never have done it on purpose. I know she must have gotten distracted and thought that my boxes were my brother’s old college papers that he HAD told her to get rid of. But I was broken hearted. It was really difficult not to say mean, bitter things to her, and a few did slip. I still, to this day, think about those old sketchpads and how much they meant to me. If the subject comes up, I work really hard to keep my mouth shut, but it still really, really hurts. I’d have kept those boxes until I died.

Thing #2, on my college graduation day, my mother gave me a three strand pearl necklace that had been her mother’s. I loved it. I think I only got to wear it five or six times. When I moved from Texas to California, I packed it up carefully. I’m sure I packed it with the stuff I brought in my car, and not the stuff I shipped. However, once I’d unpacked in California, I never saw it. I didn’t even realize I was missing it until it occurred to me that I should wear it for a special occasion. I have no idea what happened to it. It kills me that someone might have stolen it, or that I might have forgotten it somewhere. My father bought it for his mother-in-law when he was in Vietnam. They were the big name Japanese cultured pearls, and they must have cost a small fortune, even for a commissioned officer. Some day, if I ever have the money, I will try to replace them, but that won’t be for a long, long while.

2

The one thing that sticks out is the jewerly I lost coming back from Puerto Vallarta my sophomore year of high school. I went with my old Girl Scout troop because we were all quitting and had tons of cookie money left over. I had bought my mom a buch of really cute silver necklaces, bracelets and ankle bracelts on the trip because silver is cheap as dirt in Mexico and my mom loves it.

It got stolen in the airport. I got my bags searched and when they confiscated my empty Corona bottles I got mad because I collected stuff like that back then and I turned away from my luggage. I knew for a fact they were in there because I triple checked. I get sort of OCD with checking stuff like that sometimes. I had them all in a little baggie with some of my other jewerly. When I got back home, the bag was gone.

I was really pissed that someone would steal stuff from a 15 year old kid. And I really wanted my mom to have the jewerly, I know she would have loved it. And my favorite nice ankle bracelet I got on a cruise the month before was in the bag - I made it on the ship (they had tons of chain and you could make your own stuff) and it fit perfectly.

3

First edition, original Privateer game, with silk-screened wooden pieces, canvas playfield and brass treasure token. :frowning:

One of the very few things I’ve “lost”. I no longer have a wallet, but I didn’t lose it. I know where it is. The bottom of Lake Tahoe.

My wife, on the other hand, loses stuff so frequently and so quickly, I’m sure she doesn’t ever get attached to it to start with. $100 sunglasses? Gone in a week. 1/2 Carat nose stud? Within a month. Expensive shoes? How the hell do you lose shoes? :confused: I miss the money I wasted on that crap! :mad:

And she wonders why she gets calanders for Christmas now. :rolleyes:

4

My straight razor disappeared two months ago during my move. Thing dates back to the 1880s and <poof> I have no idea where it is. One day it’s in my toiletries bag, the next time I look it’s gone.

5

I had a pair of 24 carat gold earrings I got on a trip to Colombia in 1977. They were tiny frogs, replicas of pre-colombian art.
Last year I was driving with the window down, and felt my left ear flutter a bit I turned my head and saw a tiny sparkle of gold flash in the side mirror. I still have the other one, but… It’s not the same. :frowning:

6

My baby book and baby blanket. They were both lost to storage (my parents had been unable to pay for the storage so the guy confiscated the lot of it and auctioned it off).

My baby book had some awsome pictures of me and my parents when I was a baby. I loved looking through the book growing up. I miss it.

The baby blanket, however, I’m more upset about. My great-grandmother made it for me when she found out my mother was pregnant (I’m the first granddaughter and great-granddaughter on that site of the family). It was really cool - it was made of a white fabric with grey elephants on it, and had a tough lace fabric trim, and yarn things sewn throughout it. I loved that thing and slept with it through middle school (until it got put into storage by accident and lost).

Ah, Elephant Blanket. I miss you still. I had sooo hoped to give you to my own children.

~Tasha

7

A few years back when my house was overrun by ratbag teenagers (not the result of my issue), I ‘lost’ four of my good pure-wool blankets, all the down-filled sleeping bags (5) and my wonderful kitchen knife that I had spent $100 (AUD) on.

A couple of years ago I went mental on buying egyptian cotton sheets and purchased 4 of the QS versions, virginal white. They’ve all gone now too, but this time I DO suspect my own progeny. :smiley:

Take my advice folks…when the kids start to move out, lock up yer’ valuables…especially of the bedding variety. :cool:

8

Tools.
3/8" drive MAC long ratchet. 3/8" Snap-On flex head ratchet. I did a stupid thing and loaned a tool box to a compleate stranger. Why you ask? Didn’t I say it was a stupid thing?

I did read the OP, and this is not a phyisical thing.

The trust of a friend. Do not have sex with a spouse that is not yours. That is all.

9

I somehow lost a substantial-sized, hardcover cookbook. It was Alton Brown’s I’m Just Here for the Food, the first volume, autographed personally to me. My sister got it for me for a birthday, through a (now-previous) roommate’s sister who worked on his show.

At some point it just disappeared, which doesn’t make any sense at all because I loved that book. It was one of the coolest birthday presents I’ve ever received, and I just have no idea where it would have gone. It wouldn’t be the kind of thing I’d treat casually, or even lend out. I have tons of other cookbooks and I know where all of them are. I’ve also weeded out my cookbook collection a few times over the years but of course I’d never pick out that one to get rid of!

The worst thing is, I half-suspect a particular person might have taken it, just because no other option makes sense. So now I feel like I’ve lost some trust too, and add on some guilt for feeling like that without serious proof (this person had taken things from us before under the “I was going to pay you back/I didn’t think you’d mind” excuse, though mostly stuff like beer and wine).

10

Just recently …
For our first anniversary (in 2002), my husband bought me a pair of white gold hoops and a white gold bracelet. I’m not a big bracelet person, but I wore those hoops damned near every single day. Two weeks ago, as I was getting ready for bed, I had only one earring to take out. :frowning: I called the YMCA and reported it as lost, but I suspect it got swept up and never noticed.

11

An address book. I started it in my mid-20’s and lost it about 15 years later. It tracked friends through various addresses and was also a bit of a “little black book.” It held good memories.

12

High School class ring. I went to visit a friend of mine at Emerson in Boston, and ended up having a one night stand. Forgot I took the damn thing off until I had left! She even told me she had it, and conveniently forgot to mail it back to me.

13

Jewelry seems to be a common one. When I was a girl, I begged and begged for three years for one of those puzzle rings from the Rennaisance Faire. 4 strand, sterling silver. I finally got it, and wore it for about 6 months before it fell off my nightstand and down the heat register thingy. One day when they tear down my mother’s home, I will be there to sift through the rubble and find my ring! (Or, I could buy another for $20, but it wouldn’t be the same!)

Then this past May when we moved, I lost pretty near all my jewelry. Taken, I suspect, by the moving company, but since I packed it, not them, it wasn’t insured and I have no way of proving it. I’m left with the two pairs of earrings in my ears, my favorite necklace which I was wearing, and a couple of pairs of earings that were packed in my nightstand, not with my jewelry box.

If anyone has jewelry they don’t want, my email’s in my profile! I promise not to lose it this time! :smiley:

14

My R.O.D. OVA DVD. I have no idea what happened to it, haven’t seen it in over a year now. Not one of my favourite series, but I enjoyed it and dammit I want that thing back! I lost it when I moved to residence a year ago–things seem to have a habit of dissappearing when I move, because one of my Cardcaptor Sakura graphic novels vanished a year previous in another move. (I can’t wait to finish school and stop moving around so damn often)

15

I miss my two stuffed teddy bears. My family moved a lot when I was a kid, and when we finally made a permanent move, I told my mom to make sure my two teddy bears were in the moving van. My little white bear that I called Lisa and my medium sized yellow bear that I called Yellow Bear were SUPPOSED to be in one of the boxes. My parents wouldn’t let me carry them because I had to help move things, so they reassured me that they packed my bears away in one of the boxes.

We unpacked in the new house for weeks since my parents were still working nonstop. It took me about a week to realize that Lisa and Yellow Bear weren’t in any of the boxes. By then, another family had moved into our old duplex. And my parents told me that they were sure that if we had left the bears at the old place, that the new family threw them out since they were much used (but loved).

Thanks mom and dad for making sure that my most cherished childhood friends were saved :frowning:

16

My complete DVD set of Strangers with Candy. I lent it to someone, and I can’t remember who. None of my friends will confess.

17

I just figured out something else I lost. The CD that contained all the pictures I took when I went on a 10-day trip to Greece in high school. I only have some of the prints because they turned out dull. I wanted to find the CD because there is a photo contest coming up at work and one of the categories is travel and I had some neat pics I wanted to enter on that CD. But I can’t find it anywhere. I called my mom and she will look at home, and hopefully either the CD is sitting around somewhere or the pics are still on her computer! That trip costed thousands of dollars and was probably the single coolest thing I’ve ever done…I don’t want to lose all the photo memories! I just hope I get a good phone call later…

18

When my mom was in a period of declining health, she had to endure a couple of moves back and forth between her assisted-living apartment and a skilled nursing room. In her apartment, she had several family photo albums and scrapbooks, one containing all the cards she and Dad had gotten for their 50th anniversary.

At some point during the moves, the albums went missing. I can’t imagine why anyone would steal such things, which had absolutely no monetary value. I can imagine one of the residents thinking they were his/hers and taking them, to be found at some point by a son or daughter who didn’t know where they came from and pitched them.

I called the administrative offices regularly for a couple of months after mom died, but the albums never did turn up.

19

Ugh, this happened to me too, but I’m not sure how. We stored some things at a warehouse/consignment place when we moved. We sent them money as we could and they’d ship things piecemeal. When it was time to get the last of it, we were told that we’d left it too long and it had been sold. All that was left was my mom’s cedar chest, and it’s gone.

I left personal stuff with my brother’s in-laws at the same time. Diaries, letters, pictures, school yearbooks, souvenirs – all my growing up stuff. Shortly after they agreed to keep the box for me, brother and wife divorced, and when I called them to say “I’m sending money, will you send me the box?”, they said sorry, it was gone, they didn’t know where. :frowning:

20

The ring my dad gave me for high school graduation. It was stolen along with my keys during an attempted robbery. The assholes got my key ring but at least didn’t kill me or get anything else.
I still wear the ring (mentally) but I miss it.