What do you still have in your possession from your childhood?

[V.C. Brunswick]

Though I have a fairly large collection of diecast models, these three battered relics (2 Matchbox and a Hot Wheels) are the few actual ones from my childhood.

 

[scottyrocks]

The blue one is the Hot Wheels. I don't know that I should be proud that I know that. haha

 

[Just Jim]

Kinda depends on how you define "childhood". I was lying about my age to get summer jobs when I was ten, so that has always been the cut-off in my mind. . . . .

I've still got the Teddy Bear my dad gave me for my third birthday--still talk to him too, though he stopped answering long ago. When Dad "went away" when I was four, I added the books he was reading at the time (Death of a President, None Dare Call It Conspiracy, and The Great Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway) to my own small library. When I later learned he'd died, I made a couple more of his books mine.

I've got a few other books, and some photos, from those years. When Mom passed away 8 or 9 years ago, she left me a box with some of my early "art work" from school: I recognize the signature, don't remember doing the art. Mostly though, I have memories and scars. I wouldn't trade those for any toy I might have kept.

 

[belfastboy]

I have one I bought at estate sale ten years ago.
What will you use to clean it?
My glove is the Bob Feller model made
in USA.
It's still has the soft leather.
View attachment 105657
This is an image from the web, but this is
what I have in the same leather condition.
Thanks!

Damn that looks fine!

 

[2jakes]

Damn that looks fine!

Found this can with the contents still inside in an old warehouse.
I've been using it over the years.
I'm no expert on what is best, but so far it's kept the glove in
real nice condition.

 

[HanauMan]

My parents were keen on education so they bought these View Master reels which we, as a family, would enjoy in the evenings (pre internet days and only one TV channel - AFNTV Germany - folk made their own entertainment in those days). The reels, when viewed through their special stereo viewers (needing two D cell batteries), would give you a 3D effect. There are reels on countries, also science and airplanes, etc. Others were for Disney cartoons, TV series of the day and such like. These were all bought in the 1970s, some still have the prices on them ($1.20 - $1.50), though most have sales prices (25 - 50cents).

I believe that these reels were popular from the late 1950s until the rise of computer games, video recorders etc in the '80s.

Viewmaster by Al Sutherland, on Flickr

 

[2jakes]

Carousel slide projector!

 

[HanauMan]

Carousel slide projector!
View attachment 106005

My father took hundreds of 35mm slides in the 1960s - 80s.

Spent a week a few years back copying them into digital computer files.

 

[3fingers]

My father took hundreds of 35mm slides in the 1960s - 80s.

Spent a week a few years back copying them into digital computer files.

Our childhoods and family history for over 40 years was captured by my grandfather on slides. I loved to get out the projector and screen and look at them. People who were then old or already passed showed up as young. Trips and every day activities were interesting. When he died my grandmother threw most of them out. I salvaged very few.
I was there for a lot of it and I remember. However, I have very little to show my kids from the past. Not that they particularly care anyway. Interest in such things seems to have declined.

 

[HanauMan]

Our childhoods and family history for over 40 years was captured by my grandfather on slides. I loved to get out the projector and screen and look at them. People who were then old or already passed showed up as young. Trips and every day activities were interesting. When he died my grandmother threw most of them out. I salvaged very few.
I was there for a lot of it and I remember. However, I have very little to show my kids from the past. Not that they particularly care anyway. Interest in such things seems to have declined.

Don't give up hope yet.

It is only as I get older that I'm more and more interested in finding out 'where did I come from?' and treasure the few material items I have from my, and my parents, past. I wasn't interested when I was young, too busy with 'life' at the time; education, finding a career, girlfriends and everything else. Now, I'm a tad wiser and have time to reflect on my family history.

I'm sure that your children, in time, will show a greater appreciation and in the meantime you're, perhaps, a custodian of your own family history.

 

[green papaya]

Germany's WWII-era leadership boot knife taken off a German soldier during WW2

 

[2jakes]

...Interest in such things seems to have declined.

As kids we enjoyed listening to stories or
tales from aunts, uncles and grandparents.

At a family get-together recently the children were occupied with
their cell phones watching movies or music with earphones
oblivious of anyone.

I wondered what memories would they
have when they get older .

 

[2jakes]

Grandfather's...

 

[HanauMan]

My dad was a army mechanic and I still have a few tools from his motorpool days that I still use and treasure.

One activity that I enjoyed in late childhood onwards was going to the library. It started with my dad taking me to the various base libraries and, soon, I was a regular book borrower myself.

I still have this book called When The Stars Come Out which I first read in 1974. I was beginning to take an interest in astronomy (the Bavarian skies where we lived at the time were very clear) and I began reading up about the subject. This was my favourite book though by time I read it the book was already twenty years old (it was printed in 1955).

I still have the library card that was in the book, it shows that I borrowed it in '74, '75 and '76. My dad was pretty friendly with the two librarians, so when we left Germany I got to keep the book. And thus, 40 years down the road I still have it. I only need to open it up to be transported back to that small library.





As a side note, I read decades later that when the majority of US bases closed, the books in the military libraries in Germany were donated to libraries in East Germany after the reunification (apparently the East Germans now wished to learn English rather than Russian). The books that I read as a kid were sent to Erfurt. I wonder if they're still there?

 

[vitanola]

I have a few well loved stuffed toys from my infancy, and the blanket in which I was swaddled when the lady from the Agency gave me to my mother, when I was not quite three months old. A few years ago, when I was emptying the attic of my parents' house before blowing in insulation I found virtually EVERY toy, piece of furniture, and bit of clothing which my brother and I used it wore from babyhood to about the age of seven. I disposed of much of it at that time, for Mom had already had her accident and no longer remembered any of it. We kept a very few mementos, though.

 

[vitanola]

Grandfather's...
View attachment 106128

Oh. He drove an A Model!

The Stilson wrench was a T Model accessory, though.

 

[HadleyH1]

I have a pair of blue, woollen gloves that I wore in kindergarten.

 

[OldStrummer]

A family portrait (my two sisters and me), painted in Austria, 1954.

 

[1967Cougar390]

I still have my 1979 ATE Superman rotary telephone. A highly sought after collectible and one of my prize childhood keepsakes.

Steven

 

[2jakes]

My mom was the original hoarder when it came to my things which
she kept when I went overseas.

canvas oil paintings from school

Shoebox with lead soldiers.

My sister’s toy sewing machine;

She even saved my old jeans because she liked the tiger
that I painted on the back pockets.