Most of everyone's childhood treasures slip away over the years. Mom was very good at making regular donations to the Goodwill while I was dutifully away at school trying to do my best to excel at the subjects of recess, lunch, and watching the clock slowly creep to 3:00pm. When I came home, little did I suspect that my own dear sweet Mother had performed the dreaded toy-donation run behind my back! It was years before I caught on to the horrible truth, and to then take counter measures.
Hiding stuff under my bed was one method that I tried early on ... But.... it had mixed results. Somehow Mom would always find that stash when she knelt down to pick up my dirty socks (also kicked under the bed). As I became older, I grew more skilled in the fine art of sneaky-ness. Finally, I out-sneaked Mom by stashing the most precious items of my loot up in the attic crawlspace (I'm still pretty proud of my brilliance!). At last my goodies were safe! And so my days of hording-run-amok began...
Anyhoos... from early on the easiest thing for a kid to collect and stash safely away from the dreaded toy purgings is the small pocket-size stuff: bubblegum cards, foriegn coins, pocket knives, pop bottle caps, stamps, lady fingers, army men.... I saved mine in the old cigar box.
Most of the loot I collecting were hand-me-downs from Brother Dear, my Dad, the Grandparents, and Uncle Richard. There's my cubscout patches, the green rabbit's foot that my dog Phoebe chewed on, pocket knives, water pistols, a penny flattened on the railroad tracks behind our home, a cap gun spool of blanks, a promo pen from my Grampa's barber shop, arrowheads, a spoon from the Dairy Queen down the street, and my brother's old baseball card collection. Oh and souvineer photos from the 1933 Chicago World's Fair from Grandma E.!
This collection's estimated value = Priceless!
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10 comments:
Nice stash! Call me silly, but I want that Dairy Queen spoon. My parents owned a DQ when I was born, so I remember those spoons well. Mom was a purger too, but she was willing to keep some stuff, so my baseball cards (same era as these) were saved. Unfortunately my Batman utility belt pieces were given away, tossed, whatever.
Sounds like every kid's dream to have DQ as the family business! Ohhh, I bet it hurts everytime you think about that utility belt.
My dad had all the original issues of the Superman comics (including Superman's first appearance) until Grandma gave them away while he was in the Service... he NEVER got over that.
Wow... DQ is still right up the street from me, so I remember those spoons too.
Love this. Love the story behind this!
Kid stash...
Mom was a bit of a packrat herself, so she never bothered my stuff, but I'd go through all my digs and purge stuff along and along. But I still have my cherished goodies. Four little cat and bunny toys carefully kept in a smaller cigar box I decorated with vintage lace and such when I was a kid.
It also reminds me of Addie in the movie "Paper Moon", where she has all her belongings stashed in a cigar box
Excellent post! Now I'm trying to think of all my stashes and where my "kid stuff" is.
Ohhh, that was a great movie (*sigh* I kinda remember having a kid-crush on her after the film came out). Now if only I had a copy to watch it again tonight LoL
My stashes are still up in that attic... just keeping my fingers crossed that the ceiling doesn't fall-in and ruin my day.
Awww, I'm so glad my failure to clean my clutter inspired this post! LOL I'm such a nostalgic person, I love seeing other people's what nots like this that they keep. I still have my patches from the Brownies! lol
Ahhh which reminds me, I had the biggest crush on Gene Wilder in the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I have no clue why, except he was mysterious, dangerous and fun all at the same time. *sigh*
I hardly even see any kids in brownie or cub scouts anymore :/
And Gene Wilder was in a ton of great movies... except I didn't have a crush on him :P
What fun!
All of my childhood items (and I do mean all) were given away by an aunt after my mother died (I was fifteen). She came bustling in to clean out the house and got rid of most of my mothers things, as well as my own. I don't know what gave her the right to get rid of any of it, but she took it upon herself. I never forgave her (probably not nice of me, but there you have it). And I never forgave my father for allowing it to happen.
Grrr... I've seen that happen with my Grandma's things... seems like there's always members in every family that a death brings out the worst in. The very least she could have done is ask first, fifteen or not!
Keep your eyes open on ebay, sometimes those old treasures have a way of coming back around for second chance.
My Dad still laments over his Tom Corbett stuff getting tossed by our Granny. My mom sold our x200+ Smurf Collection, complete with houses etc.. at a yard sale after I moved out. Oh how I wish I had those now! I'm glad you were able to keep some things from your childhood, they seem very dear to you!
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