Still hoarding items from your youth?

CUCINA · 13-06-2013 11:24pm #1

So what things do you still have from years ago stashed away in your attic or wardrobe?
As I mentioned in a post earlier this evening, I have a pile (i.e., about a hundred!) cassette tapes of recordings from the radio, from the Seventies. My cassette of choice was the BASF Chrome or Memorex, always C90. (The actual tape in the cassette was black instead of the usual brown).
I also have about 1oo copies of "Shoot" and "Goal" football magazines from the same era. Then there are about 30 or 40 copies of "Phoenix" magazines from the mid-80's.
From the time I was old enough to get the bus on my own into town, I used to go to Easons in O'Connell St. most Saturdays and would never leave without buying a book of some sort. And yes you've guessed, I have a bookcase containing the resultant accumulation.
Having said all that, I do occasionally go on a throwing-out rampage. Last time, about two years ago, I was very brave and dumped a pile of stuff, including boxes of "Autocar" magazines (again from the Seventies).

To be continued...maybe...

OldGoat · 14-06-2013 8:30am

Don't dump stuff without trying EBay, Adverts.ie or Etsy first. :cool:

Having said that I just gave away the last of my vinyl collection. Some of those albums I've not heard in over 20 years and are now not available on any other media. Did anyone else ever hear of The Phantom Orchestra or The Bogey Boys?

CUCINA · 14-06-2013 10:09am

Heard of the Bogey Boys, alright. I used to work with a guy who was a big fan. That would be in around the late 70's?
I remember he came in one morning after seeing them live at a gig in the Regent's Hotel, if I remember correctly, and he was raving about them.

WestWicklow1 · 14-06-2013 10:15am

I still have my Bako set from the late fifties in the attic.

Jellybaby1 · 14-06-2013 5:07pm

If memory serves me, we've loads of slides, LP's, EP's, magazines. I'm afraid to go into the attic to check so that's enough to be going on with but I do know that it has become quite a monster! Silly us.

cuilteanna · 14-06-2013 5:17pm

I've moved house far too many times to have anything left. All my vinyl has been gone for years, and I ripped the last of my cassettes to mp3's at least five years ago. If I'd stayed in one place though I hate to think what I'd still have!

Eeden · 20-06-2013 9:54pm

OldGoat wrote: »

Did anyone else ever hear of The Phantom Orchestra or The Bogey Boys?

Not the Bogey Boys, but I remember the Phantom Orchestra - 70s or early 80s maybe? Kinda jazzy stuff... weren't they Irish? I liked them.

jos28 · 23-06-2013 11:52pm

I have loads of bits and pieces from youth. I still have lps, books, annuals, letters (lovely handwritten ones from old boyfriends), memberships from places I used to frequent, postcards, school reports.......God I am such a hoarder

Rubecula · 26-06-2013 10:14am

I have to admit I am a hoarder... well I was until I took ill and my sisters moved in to keep an eye on my place for me. I got home to find lots of my "treasures" had vanished to the great tip in the sky. But I still have my books (They knew they would die slow lingering deaths if thay had gone) I have about 4,500 books in my house. I also have a few eight-track tapes and cassettes, lots of 33 1/3 vinyls about 100 45' singles and bunch of 78's.

I have VHS tapes too but it has taken me weeks to find the player .... Sister put it in a cupboard in my bedroom GRRRRRRRR

But yes I do have trouble throwing out stuff with memories attached.

Jellybaby1 · 26-06-2013 12:16pm

Hiya Rube, hope you are keeping well.

I am spring cleaning today and it’s not going too well. I keep being distracted by my hoard of memorabilia. Now I’m just moving stuff around instead of getting rid. I might just leave it and let the kids deal with it after I’m gone, which I think is fair considering everything that they’ve made me deal with all these years!! :P Anyway just an update, I found the birthday cards that I received for my 21st birthday, that’s 40 years of hoarding alone, and I also found a plastic bag from ‘Crazy Prices’. My daughter said to keep it (she has inherited my love for useless rubbish), I think it may be time to bin it now, but first…….hmmmmm, where’s my camera:

Rubecula · 26-06-2013 5:25pm

Hiya Jelly, I am fine hon, thanks for asking XXX

jos28 · 26-06-2013 7:49pm

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Hiya Rube, hope you are keeping well.

I also found a plastic bag from ‘Crazy Prices’. My daughter said to keep it (she has inherited my love for useless rubbish), I think it may be time to bin it now, but first…….hmmmmm, where’s my camera:

Crazy Prices at Crazy Prices !!

Jellybaby1 · 26-06-2013 8:11pm

I seem to remember enjoying my shopping trips to Crazy Prices.

Chucken · 28-06-2013 1:35pm

I still have my first communion dress...its tiny!!!

...and my very first dress and coat. My mam was great to keep things and I just took over.

I have every copy book my 2 had in national school and every little drawing they did.

Rubecula · 28-06-2013 8:43pm

That is lovely Chuck
I have a picture I tore out of a magazine in the late fifties of a motorbike and my poor childish scrawl on it saying "To Daddy, Lots of Love" Lord knows why I still have it but it is something I will not throw away.

shamrock2004 · 28-06-2013 8:47pm

i still have my sega game gear (in its original box) commodore64 (in its original box) and my pogs!

Jellybaby1 · 29-06-2013 12:50am

I'm still considering what to do with my Crazy Prices bag. Decisions, decisions. Should I bin it or should I not? On the plus side, it does state that it is ''reusable', so of course I should keep something that can still be used, shouldn't I? I watched Hoarders on TV today. Lady with a beautifully neat and tidy home but she had a dark secret, yep, a basement crammed with stuff plus three storage facilities which her hubby 'was not aware of'. I find that difficult to believe, they were costing $5,000 a year, didn't he wonder where the money was going? I hasten to say I'm not that bad, and my spring cleaning/de-cluttering has re-commenced.

cuilteanna · 29-06-2013 2:04pm

I love watching Hoarders. While I don't have much of anything left from my childhood/youth, I do have a fully-stocked (overstocked?) sewing/crafting room! They did an episode early on involving a quilter which started a huge discussion about hoarding vs. having a "stash". I maintain that because I don't have a local quilt shop it's essential for me to keep a lot of things on hand. (I'm not sure that 20+ pairs of scissors is necessary... but I'm not alone!) Since the only crafting I did last time we moved was cross stitch I am really dreading packing up next time!

I vote keep the bag.

Pulsating Star · 29-06-2013 11:11pm

jos28 wrote: »

, letters (lovely handwritten ones from old boyfriends),

These, I have all the letters I got from my mom after I moved to London in the early eighties, there was no phone at home and she gave me a weekly update on the goings on. Also in a separate wrapper those from an early distance relationship..

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I found the birthday cards that I received for my 21st birthday:

I have mine also, all two of them!

CUCINA · 30-06-2013 1:31am

Well, reading these posts, there is a kind of comfort in knowing that I'm not the only one. But also, I think it might motivate me to go on another "throwing out" rampage. I remember the last time I did this, I felt that there was a weight lifted off of my shoulders. You feel a kind of pride in having the determination to let go of items from your past, items that have no relevance to your present.

However,having said all that, there are certain things that I would find quite difficult to throw out. One such item is my "Man From Uncle" identity card. (Maybe there are others out there who would also have had one of these, tied in with the TV series from the Sixties). It has a photo of me as a 12-year-old, and it was "signed", by Alexander Waverely, who I think was head of U.N.C.L.E.

(I vaguely remember something about "Smith's" crisps having a kind of promotion, and having to show this ID card to gain admittance to the Adelphi cinema in Abbey St., to witness the adventures of Ilya Kuryakin and Napoleon Solo, and we all got a free packet of crisps).

...The power of sentimentality!

Jellybaby1 · 30-06-2013 9:49pm

Oh youse guys, I'm getting all eemoshunal now! This is all so sah-weet!!

annieoburns · 01-07-2013 9:22am

They say we should move house every 7 years. One would be bit more ruthless about dumping stuff. Ah Ilya Kuryakin

He was my pin up and on inside of a wardrobe... but left him when I moved out.....

I think one can have a mania for decluttering as well as hoarding. I seem to be dumping lot of things lately now kids have moved on and no point in keeping stuff that might be 'useful' some day. Thriftiness and frugality are virtues inherited from parents of a different era that sadly dont seem so important these days.

Jellybaby1 · 02-07-2013 12:48am

annieoburns wrote: »

Thriftiness and frugality are virtues inherited from parents of a different era that sadly dont seem so important these days.

You said it annieo, they are virtues. And with the recession we seem to have 'slipped back into' (when were we ever out of it?), those virtues are definitely still needed. I thought at this age I could just put my feet up and knit baby bootees, but sadly neither are going to happen due to lack of jobs in this house, they can't afford their own homes, they can't plan a future and they can't afford to have kiddiwinks either, boo-hoo for me! I'll never be a granny.

annieoburns · 02-07-2013 9:19am

Lack of grand kids or having them when too old to play active role is a sad knock on of recession and changing times such as starting families later in life. Yes Jellybean I agree with you. And emigration is another blow for grannies when grankids are too far away to get to know and be involved in their lives.

Sorry for getting off topic! I would like to think that things we have hoarded might become heirlooms for future generations.... something to be put in their glass cabinets! That thought might help us decide what to hang on to. So my silver cup for swimming that sits beside my grandfather's football one will always be kept.

Still have my teddy bear

Jellybaby1 · 03-07-2013 1:54pm

shamrock2004 wrote: »

i still have my sega game gear (in its original box) commodore64 (in its original box) and my pogs!

Hi Sham, just read this again. Wondered if you misspelled that. Not pogs, maybe pógs!!!! Tee-hee!

Do they make special albums for pógs/póga (kisses) now? (Sniggering in the back row with Chuckie and the gang!)

OH! MI! GOSH!(smacks face with both bands!!) Look at what I found in my de-cluttering!! Did we get these in 1st class or later, anyone know?:

Rubecula · 03-07-2013 2:00pm

Awesome pictures Jelly Bet you anyone under thirty has no clue what the hell they are I mean they are written on paper and stuff in real print LOL

Chucken · 03-07-2013 2:20pm

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Hi Sham, just read this again. Wondered if you misspelled that. Not pogs, maybe pógs!!!! Tee-hee! Do they make special albums for pógs/póga (kisses) now? (Sniggering in the back row with Chuckie and the gang!)

OH! MI! GOSH!(smacks face with both bands!!) Look at what I found in my de-cluttering!! Did we get these in 1st class or later, anyone know?:

I remember singing these

I have to say I was shocked when my 2 started in 1st class, that teaching tables wasnt done anymore. I took it on myself to hammer them into them...they didnt thank me at the time but they do now.

Jellybaby1 · 03-07-2013 8:05pm

You are right, Chuckie, we 'sang' our tables, and we used a rhythm which helped a lot. I remember twisting left and right as well. It was a pleasant way to learn tables. They don't do rote learning now more's the pity. Is it because they just don't want to teach it? Its an easier way for the kiddies to learn it. AND, AND, wait for it.........it gave you 'Common Sense' as well! It was the 'Common Sense Table Book' after all!

Pulsating Star · 03-07-2013 10:49pm

Nice find JB!

Chucken wrote: »

I took it on myself to hammer them into them...they didnt thank me at the time but they do now.

HaHa! I well remember them being "hammered" into me by my folks!
Didn't do me any harm at all, I must say.

CUCINA · 14-08-2013 2:13pm

Well, I went on another ruthless "throwing out" rampage. Boxes and boxes of all kinds of stuff...household gadgets, old utility bills, books, magazines, around a hundred cassette tapes, momentos from previous jobs etc., etc.
Not much left now but two categories of items remain. At various times, since I was a kid and up to recently, I have been an astute keeper of diaries. Not just comprising mundane records of what what happened, but opinions about events and people I knew at the times involved. So they are in a box now which effectively is a personal time-capsule and I don't ever intend disposing of them.
The other category is not so sacrosanct but still I am finding difficult to dispose of them. Back in the early 80's (my God, thirty years ago!) I had a network of regular penpals from various countries. So I had a folder for each of them, with their letters (and corresponding photo-copies of my replies to each!) neatly stored in chronological order. Obviously too much time on my hands...
Anyway, I still have them and I put them in a box for throwing out. But last weekend I decided to have a quick browse back over some of them and I was just amazed at what I was reading...things and events I did but had no recollection of. And the trouble some of these pen-pals went to...pages and pages of hand-written letters (no internet then, obviously). One used to write to me using an Olivetti type-writer, complete with Tippex correction fluid here and there.
Another pen-pal was a Polish university student who thanked me for sending him a copy of James Joyce's "Dubliners" explaining how he was having it translated into Polish etc. Our correspondence came to a halt with the rise of Solidarity, and so letters arrived months late stamped "Censored" and re-sealed crudely with sellotape. Finally they stopped altogether.
Anyway, I digress...the question is, would I regret throwing all of these letters out? What would YOU do?

Rubecula · 14-08-2013 3:17pm

Personally Cucina I would keep them. But I do hoard things.

Still hoarding items from your youth?

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