Treasures & Trinkets

Have you ever been cleaning out a drawer, a box, a closet, and come across treasures from long ago?  What makes something a treasure?  Why do we hang on to trinkets?

With all the little upgrades and touches I've been doing here, I found I needed to put some plastic glides on the bottom of my "hope chest" because it was scratching my tile floors whenever it shifted or got bumped.  Which meant turning it on its side.  Which meant taking some of the smaller, breakable things out of the top shelf.  And when it was time to put things back, my son delighted in looking through all the treasures!  There are three $1 bills -- and I can't recall why they were tucked away in there.  Was it because the serial number made for a good poker hand?  (One of those things I used to do with the mechanics I hung out with while working at Clarklift of San Jose)  Or because it was some "silver series"?  I can't recall.

There are a few silver coins and a liberty coin.  A few papers of historical stuff - a memo from my job that cites a raise I received back in the early 80s.  A note and drawing from my niece to my daughter when they were young girls.  the receipt for my wedding dress, which I no longer have.  A couple of doilies made by my grandmother.  A couple of hand made book marks.  Several different old credit cards.  He laughed at the designs and sizes of many.  And wondered why there weren't magnetic strips on the back of some?  How many of you remember the days when a credit card was laid down in a machine, and a roller passed over the top.  Credit cards had raised numbers to the numbers would imprint on sheets of non-carbon paper so that accounts could be charged the correct amount.  Now there's history for you!

Also, a small jewelry box full of old memories as well.  Ok.  Now here's something that will make you go Hmmmmmmm.  Back in the early 80s, I collected gold charms (think charm bracelets).  Only I wore them on a necklace.  You'll see it started with my "class of 77" number (probably from my tassel).  There's a teddy bear and a #1.  Then there's the cowboy boot, the cowboy hat and a cactus.  A cactus?  I lived in California.  We never grew a cactus.  How odd is it that I end up living in Arizona, and grow cactuses myself now???

Among the other treasures in my jewelry box, a couple of road runner pins, the first cross necklace from my parents (I was probably about 7 or 8 when I got it?), a mustard seed necklace from my cousin Jerry, and some oddball rings with no particular meaning, other than one is red like a ruby, one is turquoise.  and they're all adjustable.  That must have been the in thing!  hehehee  Two charm bracelets, one gold 10 commandments I earned when I was 10, for memorizing them.  One in silver, with my graduation charms.  (That must have been a big deal in the 70s.)  My Cinderella watch, missing the pink leather band.  And a pendant of Leo the Lion.  My dad's company produced them, with a battery inside that fired off a blinking red light.  And another ring, a really pretty jade ring that I remember gazing at in a Cost Plus Import store on a shopping trip with my parents and my aunt and uncle.  Uncle Jim saw me gazing at that ring, and bought it for me.  I remember being so thrilled!  I was about 12 or 13 at the time.

Treasures and trinkets represent moments in time.  And one look at an item can bring back so many memories.  Hopefully good ones :)  I think that's why we hold on to our things.  It's a way of holding on to memories.  And maybe some day our kids or grandkids will want to know what it was like when we were kids ourselves.  I've had that desire to know about my own grandparents in that way.   Which could a completely different blog!  ;)