Things you've "collected" over the years

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How many of us drag home or "almost" have drug home some really strange stuff in our years of "collecting"? I've always felt it was a hereditary issue with me (my dad did the same)...but I'm wondering.

My dad and I once tried to talk mom into a de-fused bomb for the front lawn (we were going to paint it and put a saddle on it)....she threatened to hurt us both, besides we couldn't figure out who to get to haul it (they weigh quite a bit). We did get a river buoy though.

My ex threatened me with evaluation over a 71 Airstream trailer...(it seemed like a good idea at the time...and of course it was nice and shiny). What is it with the shiny stuff?

Damn, you don't even know. Or you probably do.

I currently live in this little complex, pretty much like a dorm setup for a bunch of old drunk people and me. I like it here, minus the fact that I only get one room to myself. So in this room, I have all the stuff I have from over the years. It's mostly little things, parts of things, knickknacks, oh, the knickknacks, candles, stereo equipment, toys cd cases, bank tubes, pencil sharpeners, failed experiments, clippings from magazines, pocketknives, balls, model rocket supplies, nametags, party hats, road signs, paintings, cables, slyers, action figures, containers, cooking equipment, more toys, burntout mexican candles, stuffed animals, broken lamps, clocks, music supplies, pillows, ashtrays, milk crates, manuals, annuals, chinese lanterns, things to hang on the walls, adapters, chargers, disks, camel cash, fragments, evidence, arts & crafts stuff, postits with notes, lists, excerpts, quotes, or whatever, and most of it all is just crap that I saw on the ground when I was walking around.

And now, a collection of liquor bottles. I guess that's nothing but incriminating. Oh well.

I couldn't start to inventory it, and I wouldn't part with it for the world.
Well, maybe for the world, but nothing less.

Street signs that fell off the pole in a storm, or because of an auto accident.

A railroad switch. That huge thing with a small metal flag that goes up to indicate the track has moved to the other side. Found one that had been disconnected from it's mounting. Of course I had to have it. Almost got a hernia wrestling it into my car.

Various auto hub-caps that I found by the side of the road.

My father once brought home a piece of an ICBM that had mal-functioned shortly after lift off, and had to be self-destructed. That was pretty kewl ....

I have a collection of fortune cookie messages, Hello Kitty dolls & movie tickets.

Oh, all sorts of little odd 'n ends...
pieces of railroads tracks (spikes mostly, but other bits too),
for awhile I was big into restaurant silverware and napkins,
random stones,
almost any sort of electrical equipment (no matter what it is, pieces of a PBX, once I picked up this router someone had thrown away...it wouldn't really fit in my car and it took two people to pick up...it was so awesome!!),
movie tickets definitely,
any little scrap of paper that might have sentimental value,
used to pick up unusual sticks when I lived out in the countryside.

Perhaps my best "find" was a piano left on the side of the road...I saw it and knew it had to be mine...4 hours later it was mine...2 months after that I had to get rid of it because I never could find a way to get it upstairs into my apartment

Ah well, such is life.

All kinds of stuff. Recently found and brought home with evil looks from my wife and neighbors. A transmission from a small car,a riding lawn mower, a truck box for a pick up filled with various tools and hardware,a coil of rg11 cable and the list goes on. It's like a hobby for me finding stuff in junk piles or tag sales. Most of it gets cleaned up and sold at a flea market but I still keep way to much my basement and sheds are full it never ends.

I have a Uhaul fetish, I must! I carry around a lot of crap in my life. a broken marble column, a three foot high brass candlestick, a mini coffee press, a small crockery salsa dish with an incredibly small ladle, kitchenware, about 15-17 different kinds of vegetable peelers, matched graters in descending sizes, a set of Shakespeare I haven't read since college, three abacuses that I run my hands over occassionally so it will change the pattern of the universe (one is past one is present and one is future) A Ty beanie baby that I got for a quarter that went up in price to $750.00 during the beanie baby craze and is probably worth about 13 cents now. Gateway 2000 Inc Stock (same story as the beanie baby, actually!) that I have threatened to paper my bathroom with, but I would not care to leave it behind when I move.

I can't pass a free box, I can't ignore a dumpster where people are moving out, I was raised at the end of a leather leash to my harness as I followed my mother through Sally Ann's and rummage sales and thrift shops and I have collected all the books I read when I was young.

Merle

Anything and everything cat-related. I have cat figurines, stuffed animals and cat books. Most of my collection is made up of Siamese cats.

Curbside shopping...I'm not even going there. I haven't bought a vacuum in years...been getting lucky with the mowers recently also.

I barter other things for things I do need....I've given alot away too.

I don't find stuff...it finds me.

My son and I just spent two days cruising the yard sales during our recent community festival. Rummage sales next month.

I didn't even begin to all the heart shaped rocks, things that looked like faces, and if I ever find something on the ground that I don't know what it is, then I will take it home, or pick it up until I can figure it out. It's usually a little spring or component or something or nuther. I have hood ornaments out the ass.

A huge section of whale skull I found on the beach. It had to weigh at least 50 pounds and I was about 11 years old at the time.
I still have it, though it has shriveled since then.

I could list lots of other curious things, all of which found on the beach and all of which I still have.

over 500 games (board and RPG)

A life's worth of love and memories.
An equal amount of sadness.

Well, if I had to include things over my lifespan I'd have to say:

chestnuts, Hotwheels cars, pencil erasers, music cassettes and then cds, magazines, clay figurines, Corvette plates, Oldsmobile knick-knacks, boots (flat-platform and heeled), letters and postcards from antique bins, coins, rocks, roman-style columns (2 1/2 to 3 feet tall)...funny thing is, i still have many of these items ( just can't let them go) .

here's some of the odd stuff that I've ended up collecting, and some of it, I just don't know why!

antique appliances...especially space-age looking stuff from the 50's and 60's that i've found in the trash

hammond organs...They're big and bulky and take up a lot of room, and darn! I can't even play them, but they are so fascinating!

anything with vacuum tubes: Old radios, televisions, and other appliances

8-track tapes: I love finding these things at yard sales. Yea, they sound terrible...dunno why I find them interesting

old computers: Commodores, Apple II's, stuff like that


Here's a couple of the things I would end up collecting as a kid for some reason or another:

old car parts: either finding a part on the side of the road as a kid, or some spent, broken part my dad removed off the family car

burned out lightbulbs: There are so many interesting looking lighbulbs out there, of course, I had to display them on a shelf! My favorite one was a huge sodium vapour bulb I got from an electrician at the grocery store!

Not the ones that look like babies but the really neat ones that can blend in and hide. Funny story. I was going to do the bathroom and bedroom in aqua and my hubby bleached the aqua towels! I said "Ok, that does it." I did the bedroom in purple and put all the fairies in it so it looks like a veritable barfing of said creatures! That'll teach him.