What stuff have you lost and really missed?

In My Humble Opinion
21

A bunch of jewelry, of HUGE sentimental value - my grandparents were antique dealers, and had given me various antique rings and such over the years. I never lost a single piece of jewelry, even as a small child, and was very proud of that fact. Apparently the teenage drug addict who broke into my first studio apartment didn’t care about the sentimental value.

The favorite piece I lost was a gorgeous sapphire ring, in a white gold filigree setting. But I also miss the silver heart-link bracelet that my dad gave me when I came in 3rd nationally in a Spanish competition in high school. And I also miss my first guitar, which was also a casualty of that burglary.

22

I was really missing some comic books for the last several months after I thought they’d vanished on me, but I found them about a week ago in the back of a closet where’d they’d been for the last six years after I had apparently separated them from the rest of my comics for some forgotten reason and put them there.

For things that disappeared and stayed disappeared: when I was about 4 I had a die-cast model of Chitty Chity Bang Bang. I set it down somewhere in my house and never saw it again. Had wings that folded in and out of the body and everything. When I was 14 I was confirmed and my class got little silver medals about the size of a dime. My dad threw out the bag it was in because he thought it was trash and he couldn’t bear to see a piece of trash out of the can. Couldn’t care less about the theology behind the medal but it looked really cool.

23

My Aunt Barbara gave me a small heart locket when I was a very small girl. She passed away when I was in third grade, and by the time I went to look for it when I wanted to wear it to 5th grade “graduation” it was nowhere to be found.

Two of my shirts were lost in the laundry service when I lived in an apartment complex that would do your laundry for you. One was a Hogwarts t-shirt my now-husband gave me as a gift. The other was a long-sleve t-shirt that fit well and was an awesome shade of pink. bummer.

Most recently, on our honeymoon, I had pretty much only been wearing a pair of earrings my husband had gotten me a few years back for christmas - tiny diamond studs in a silver setting. I loved them. Anyway, I had set them on the edge of the desk in the hotel room and I guess one of them got knocked over. After housekeeping came through, one earring was still on the edge of the desk, and the other was nowhere to be found. So, since the end of June, I’ve been dropping very unsubtle Christmas present hints for a new pair.

24

Oh, God. So much stuff. Our house burned down when I was in high school, and even now, five years later, I’ll start looking for a certain book or t-shirt or CD and remember that I owned that before the fire, not after. I lost all the photos from my trip to England and France. But the biggest thing to me is, I collected pink depression glass. My grandmother left me a bunch in her will, and my other grandmother would take me to antique shops and flea markets to buy more for the collection. I had quite a bit, all prettily on display in my mother’s china cabinet. When we went through the burned-out shell of our house, that area looked like it was strewn with little pink jewels from all the shattered glass.

I’m pretty sure I left my favorite sweater in a hotel room in Greece–I was pretty frantically trying to pare down my belongings to fit my new stuff in the suitcase that last night, and it may have gotten tossed on the ‘reject’ pile when I wasn’t paying attention. The other possibility is that I left it on the plane. Either way, I went over there with it and came back without it.

My baby blanket, which had a name, if not a very imaginative one: Green Blanket. Though by the time I lost it, it was pretty much grey-white. I know exactly what happened to it, too. I went to visit my cousin and left it in her truck, and she mistook it for a discard rag and used it to clean tack. Oops.

25

My fencing stuff from prep school.

If I totted it all up, it was worth more than everything else I owned put together.

It’s all in an attic somewhere in Britain… eight maraging blades quietly rusting away.

26

Earlier this year my car got stolen…I had just come home from visiting the folks and brought back a couple of boxes of my stuff…The person who stole the car took everything in it…even my dog’s old beat up plastic dog dish…but what devestated me most was my box of Christmas ornaments…ones I’d been getting since I was born…one for each year…handmade ones from my gramma… gone. I still feel sick thinking about it. I haven’t had the heart to tell my parents and gramma.

27

My bike.

It was beautiful. It had ruby-red paint on it with just a little sparkle. It had a little red-and-white basket that attatched to the front of it and a bell on the handlebars. My cousin gave it to me when I was five.

It was a little too big for me. When I was seven, the kids in my neighborhood taught me to ride it without training wheels. Every day after school, all the kids would come out… The oldest girl would hold onto the bike and then let go the way dads do in commercials and all the rest of the kids would run along the sides to help me keep my balance or sit on the lawn and cheer… I finally got it the day before the big block party and spent whe whole party riding my bike.

I, like many little girls, was obsessed with horses. I wanted desperately to take riding lessons, but had to settle for reading horse books and pretending I had a whole stable full. I pretended my bike was a horse. I named it Ruby. I was so attatched to Ruby that I find it hard right now to think of Ruby as “it” instead of “her”

I loved Ruby immensely. I would spend hours riding around the block.

I grew, and all my friends started getting fancy bikes. Ten-speeds and mountain bikes. But I wasn’t jealous. I got out my dad’s tools, raised the seat and hanlebars on Ruby, and rode her proudly round and round the block. Who needs more than one speed? my bike was the best.

I grew more and raised the seat and handlebars again, then grew even more. My mom told me I was too big for the bike. I was. I was definitely too big to still be pretending I was riding a horse (but if I were small enough and had that bike back, I’d probably still pretend.) but I didn’t care. I loved Ruby. She was my favorite object in the world. At one point, my mom even begged me to let her get me a new bike. I didn’t want a new bike. I wanted people to leave me alone and let me ride Ruby.

Then one day my mom told me my bike was stolen. I cried.

She confessed to me later that she had “stolen” it and thrown it away because she knew I’d never give it up willingly.

I really wish I still had it. Even if I couldn’t ride it. Even if time would take its toll and make it too crappy for my kids to ride it. I don’t know what I’d do with it… probably put it in the basement. But it would be nice to be able to see it there and just to have it. I do my best to keep sentimental packrat-ness to a minimum, but god I loved that bike.

also, when I went to Disney World with my dance company, we all got T-shirts and I don’t know what happened to mine. It never made it back from florida. Also, we always got t-shirts for each year’s studio show. I took mine off during class one day and put it with my stuff. The problem with everyone at the studio owning the same t-shirt is that people will sometimes both wear it to the same class. When I got out of class, i couldn’t find my t-shirt and several weeks later, while lamenting the loss to my friends, discovered that one of the guys in the class had gotten home to discover his studio t-shirt was size small and he had probably picked mine up. He promised to bring it back, but never did. I really liked that shirt.

28

Interesting that you should post this thread today.

About 18 months ago, I lost one of my favorite earrings. They are a one-of-a-kind artisan pair and they were a gift. Also, the stones are a unique shade of green. I was pretty upset.

I moved about three months after I lost the earring. I didn’t find it when I was packing, so I figured it was lost and gone forever. I would see its mate in my jewelry box periodically and kick myself.

Fast forward to today. I was picking up my bedroom, and suddenly, I see the earring on the floor!

I know my cat Rex is behind this, but even after the waterboarding, he’s still refusing to talk.

29

Amen brother. Amen. No offense to your wife, but I can’t imagine putting up with a woman with those sorts of habits. It would truly slay me.

30

What are you now? Wax? :dubious:

31

A pocket knife that belonged to my father, which he gave me when I was about 7 years old. It was made in Sheffield, England, and I haven’t seen it in years. It was almost the only physical object of his that I still had.

32

Some boxes i picked up on February 19, 2003 at the Antwerp’s Diamond Centre.

33

My engagement ring, which we had made especially for me at a time when we could scarcely afford it, even though it was a cheap setting in silver and amethyst. 6 months after we were married I was throwing a ball for the dog in a park. It was a rainy day, my hands were wet and my ring went flying off into the grass somewhere. We searched for hours with no luck and I was quite convinced it was a bad omen for our marriage (15 years later I’m not so worried). Still, I won’t have a replacement ring as it wouldn’t be an “engagement” ring if I didn’t wear it while we were engaged. I miss it, being engaged was an exciting year and the ring would’ve held a lot of memories. No real monetary value but a lot of the other kind.

Then hubby lost his wedding ring trying to ‘surf’ on a sun lounger in the sea in Cuba. We’re not very good with rings. This is why I seldom risk wearing my more valuable jewellry!

34

Someone stole my Gilley’s shirt. It was bad enough when it happened, but then Gilley’s closed the following year.

Lost one of my peach-pit earrings. This was before I knew about earring guards.

I have almost come to terms with never finding my green corduroy jumper. Almost. Because there’s still that tiny glimmer of hope that it’s deep in the storage space or something.

I am one of the few people who actually liked New Coke. Not saying it was better than the original, but then the original hasn’t been the original since they stopped using corn syrup anyway. But New Coke was not terrible, and if TPTB at the Coca-Cola company had listened to the person who said, “Why don’t we call it Savannah Cola, and introduce it as an alternative flavor?” I might be enjoying it today.

As it is, though, I had a case of it, with perhaps two cans missing, and when I went away to college, knowing that my parents would move while I was gone, I specifically told my mom, “Don’t throw away that New Coke. I don’t like that so-called Classic Coke; I like this stuff.” Came home at semester break: “Where’s the New Coke?”

“Oh, I threw it away. You said you didn’t like it.”

There is no convincing my mom of what you really said. She’s like the Far Side panel about what dogs hear vs. what you say. What she heard was, “Blah blah blah throw away that New Coke I don’t like blah blah.”

And I think I posted already about the carefully hidden Easter eggs that were nowhere to be found when I announced the hunt. Now, in that case, I almost suspect a poltergeist. I KNOW where I put them. And they never turned up ever, not even when we moved. It can’t have been the cats: how could cats grip plastic eggs (they had candy in them?). My parents had no motive; I don’t think, anyway. And it was a 3 y/o and a 5 y/o I was hiding them for; no way could they have been slick enough to find them and conceal them without my catching on. :confused:

Also my prescription sunglasses. They were in the glove box of a rental car, and I ignored the little voice asking me, “Don’t you want to look in the glove box before you hand over the keys?” Never ignore your little voice.

35

Just this morning I realized my soc sec card and voter’s registration are missing. I’ve had that soc sec card since I was 15. It was typed on a typewriter fercrissakes. I have no idea where it could be. :frowning:

36

I took a Geologic Illustrations class in college and a couple of the drawings I put a lot of time and effort into turned out really, really well. I’d love to have gotton them back as I’ll never now be able to replicate that effort.

37

Not really lost, since I gave them away. But my childhood collection of 2000AD comics. Otherwise either lost or stolen was the Cross pen given to me by my Sister in Law’s Mother.

38

My husband and I were packing everything in our stateroom on the last night of a cruise.

Somehow, amid the upheaval of packing up all the stuff for me, him, and our baby, my 2-carat diamond pendant was left in the safe. My mother-in-law had given it to me at dinner the second night of the cruise as a two-year anniversary present.

The three diamonds in my engagement ring (a pear-shaped center and two baguettes) are identical to the diamonds I left behind, so every time I look at the ring on my left hand, I am painfully reminded of my own irresponsibility. And the pain on my mother-in-law’s face when my husband and I told her what had happened.

39

As a teenager I lost a ring that my late grandad bought me. I lost weight, it didn’t fit anymore but I stupidly continued to wear it. That thing was like a boomerang. I lost it a few times and it always came back. But eventually I lost it and it never turned up.

40

There are a few things. There was a marble that my grandma gave me that I really, really liked. I brought it to school one day, and it disappeared during drafting class. I’m fairly certain that someone took it, and it still ticks me off.

After we were robbed, I took a small box filled with trinkets from my grandfather and hid it in my room. I must’ve hid it really, really well, though, because I never found it again. I harbor suspicions that my dad might’ve taken it away from me, or put it in the ceiling tiles, or something. I felt really, really bad about that, especially as some jewelry that he’d given me had been lost during the robbery.

I almost lost a few things after my grandpa died, but I salvaged them from being thrown out. This amounted to a few toys that I was attached to, and a tape that had both of my grandparents’ voices on it (it was their answering machine tape).

I lost a really, really nice jacket one year by being an idiot and leaving it behind at a high school writers’ conference. I’m still pissed at whoever thought, “hey, this’ll be a nice thing to take and not return.” Though, really, it was my own stupid fault.