What Have You Saved From Your Childhood?

[LizzieMaine]

We're a group of people who have more than the usual level of interest in preserving bits and pieces of the past -- so I'd assume most of us have held onto some treasured bits and pieces of our *own* pasts: a favorite childhood toy, some little bit of something that has special meaning for us.

I was the oldest surviving child in my family, so most of my posessions got handed down to my sister and brother, and most of them got mangled beyond recognition over the years. But I did hold onto --

*A wooden rocking chair I got for my first Christmas, when I was seven months old.

*A talking Bugs Bunny who repeats his catch phrases when you pull his string -- or did until something got sprung inside him and now he just kind of gives out with a sad gurgle.

*A large white teddy bear my mother won in a beano game. He's pretty grey and mangy now, his eyes are missing, and at some point both his ears got torn off. But he's still hanging on...

*And a 1964 Texaco wall calendar covered with things I scribbled on it when I was trying to learn to write. My penmanship has improved a little since then, but not by much...

What have *you* held onto?

 

[Midnight Palace]

Honestly not really that much. I think when I moved, I was forced to give a lot of things away, seeing as how the new place was a bit smaller. However, my grandmother still has stuffed animals of mine when I was young, she holds on to that kinda stuff.

 

[Harp]

Saved

Unfortunately, my mom threw out my baseball card collection
while I was overseas. My Playboy collection met a similar fate.

 

[Sefton]

I've spent some little time and money to re-aquire a number of things that I had as a child. Mostly toys although as far as things that I've actually kept the originals of all that I can think of off the top of my head are two photographs; my 6th grade class picture from 1976 and a black and white 8 x 10" of Godzilla which is a little dog-eared but still treasured.

 

[scotrace]

.

That monkey is going to rear its head again.

My Big Rail Work Train by Marx. And I still have all the love letters exchanged with the two major girlfriends I had in high school, along with all the gifts they gave me. Ssshhh.....

 

[ITG]

I have my Pooh bear and many of my original toys:
Star Wars collection
She Ra toys
Barbies
Tons of stuffed animals
Cabbage Patch dolls
Records and Books
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/wickie7/House/toyroom_shera.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/wickie7/House/toyroom3.jpg

 

[Lee Lynch]

Hmm..nothing, unfortunately.

My War Wars action figures all got used to death (for instance, that clean white stormtrooper armour just begging for me to heat up a pin and burn little "laser" holes into it) My Millenium Falcon was torn up by a nieghbor kid (yes, I did return the favor)
My stretchy Hulk started leaking the unknown substance
Army men? Crushed by rocks, melted ( I felt kind sorry for each one, then did it again)
Kiss cards thrown out by Mom for being "Satanic"(hey, I was 8, that was a loss then)
Shogun Warrior-pieces that shot from various appendages were lost.
The Batman comic where he dies thrown away because Batman died. I cried and Mom had to have a talk with me about how even Batman dies. At that time, I thought it meant that Batman was over, no more comics, etc...

Oh well, it's just stuff

 

[Lee Lynch]

I have my Pooh bear and many of my original toys:
Star Wars collection
She Ra toys
Barbies
Tons of stuffed animals
Cabbage Patch dolls
Records and Books
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/wickie7/House/toyroom_shera.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/wickie7/House/toyroom3.jpg

I'm impressed! It all looks new, too!

 

[Hemingway Jones]

That monkey is going to rear its head again.

What monkey?
When I saw this thread I almost replied, "Lizzie, are you sure you want to ask me that question?" lol

It is, I think, the only thing I have from my childhood, except for my clarinet.

 

[RaasAlHayya]

My sister.

A few scars.

Some goofy photographs.

Recently, my grandmother gave me a small statue that rotates on a base and plays "Beautiful Dreamer" when it is wound. She tells me that I loved to play with it when I was little, though I don't remember. Does that count?

--Leslie

 

[LizzieMaine]

ITG, I'm amazed you were able to save so much -- you must have *extremely* well behaved siblings!

Oh, and Hemingway J -- I had one of those monkeys too!!!

 

[CharlieH.]

From my childhood I still have:
- My first train set
- Surviving bits and pieces from my Erector set
- Dozens of souvenirs from my travels
- Mystery and defaced photos
- A stuffed penguin from a Toronto amusement park
- Hours of videotaped shenanigans and exploits
- A scale model of the Titanic
- My first magazines (Disney Advenntures and Archie Comics, circa 1991)
- Every Hot Wheels car I've ever owned (all "antique" models)

And I intend to keep everything till the grandchildren arrive.... or probably beyond that.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

"Now let's take it eeeeasy" "you're a cute bunny yourself"

I love my talking Bugs Bunny still, he was an actual NEW not hand-me-down toy, although I was happy to have hand-me-downs. I have kept my favorite scooter skirt, the dress I made in 7th grade home-economics class, most of my records, some Barbies; others I gave to a needier child. Some books, not enough magazines, makeup also starting from 7th grade, I salvaged a give-a-show projector and slides from the garbage when my dad threw them out, GI Joes plus footlocker, hot wheels, matchboxes. I did all kind of odd jobs to make extra moola to buy these cool toys. a picture I drew of our dog. shoeboxes full of cool old toys. A Cracker Jack prize of a tiny booklet about the future. A Rat Fink. I have it all in this 4 bedroom house I now live in. A super-8 movie my brother made of me. What didn't I keep?

 

[Samsa]

I guess I'm young enough (24) that I probably shouldn't even be answering this question, but the only thing I've made a conscious effort to hold on to, and that has any sentimental value, is a stuffed animal (a dog) my late Grandfather gave me for my first birthday.

 

[Haversack]

Carefully packed away are all of my Corgi, Dinky, and Matchbox cars from the 1960s. Also the Britains Swoppet Knights. My pre-Disney Winnie-the-Pooh sit atop my wife's dresser. All the rest are one with the sands of Babylon.

Haversack.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

God bless my old Mom...

She saved all of my model cars and some of my airplanes. She got bottle boxes from the grocery store and, after wrapping each one in tissue paper, gently placed them in the bottle slots for safe keeping. I still have the boxes she placed them in, ready to be displayed again after some thirty years!

-dixon cannon

 

[Rosie]

I have my piggy bank, a little copper thing which was my first gift ever. I have a teddy bear called Repeat Pete who used to repeat everything that was said but somehow was taken apart by someone long, long ago . I have this little teddy my brother gave me who wears a little red shirt that says Sean (my brother) loves Shameka (me). Oh, and my Baby Heather who was the greatest doll ever, so great that I never played with her and she is in PERFECT condition. A walking doll that I just HAD to have because her name is (at least according to the box she was in), Shameka. My christening outfit, though technically my mom saved that so my children can be christened in it. A few small porcelain doll my parents brought back from their travels.

 

[Matthew Dalton]

I have a few things, the most important of which is my Lego collection. I wish I'd held on to my Transformers...

 

[Salv]

This jacket:

Me wearing it in Naples, in 1961 or '62:

 

[sonsie]

hmmm...
my SO not soft and squishy first teddy bear
first blanket
first handmade quilt
wooden bench/step stool that I'm currently painting white and stenciling
first baby shoes
baptism dress
locks of hair
Bunnykins bowl
silver spoon
report cards
Mr. Bim (a black and yellow monkey with red suspenders and a banana)

and just a couple of weeks ago I finally threw away my Mr. Ed puppet by Mattel - pull his string and he talks. It still worked, but he was a little hoarse. :whistling

sonsie