Idiosyncratic things you keep

I was watching Up In the Air and George Clooney was waxing about backpacks and it struck me: I'm hooked on carrying equipment. I've got all manner of computer bags, backpacks and duffels. When my kids were in diapers, I had a backpack diaper bag. Had a foldout changing mat. I'm just really enthralled by bags that help you carry stuff. Every time I'm in a department store, I have to look at the backpacks and luggage. Got'em line up like soldiers in my bonus room, just in case the unlikely event occurs where I'd actually need them again. Can't let'em go.

Do you have anything you collect that isn't in the normal realm of collectibles?

 

Man, I thought I was the only one who wound up with a closet filled which luggage, messenger bags and backpacks.

 

Worthless sports cards.

I have probably 350,000 cards, maybe more, but only about 200 of them are worth a damn. Every now and then, I'll get another box of the cheap, 1988-91 mass-produced, worthless junk from a well-meaning friend or relative. But I still get enjoyment opening up the packs, even when I know there is virtually nothing of worth in them.

If I could get a penny apiece, I would drop them in an instant.

 

Computer cables, power strips, USB cords, spare chargers for everything under the sun, extras of stuff I really don't need, just so I have one set of stuff in my suitcase/laptop bag and another at home. Keep in mind I rarely write on the road anymore, but just in case ...

And rosters. I used to file them away and keep them for two years. It was excessive.

 

I'm not sure if this is even relevant to the intent of the thread topic, but either way, if you read Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," I don't think you'll be disappointed. The thread title certainly reminded me of that great story.

 

I'm right there with you. I have a closet packed full of computer cables, chargers for phones I haven't had in years, old CD drives I pulled out of computers, floppy discs that became outdated with Windows 95...

I could probably build a functioning but incredibly shitty computer out of the piles of spare parts I have lying around. And it would have like 5 keyboards.

 

I've alerted the proper authorities that you're the alien from "District 9" and plan to dock with the mother ship. You've been warned. We're watching you.

 

Pens. All kinds, all colors.

Media guides. I kept them all.

 

When my parents moved out of the house we lived in while I was in high school, I came home from college to clean out my room.

Then I discovered that I had never thrown out a notebook for class. Ever.

It runs in the family though. My grandfather kept a box of ceiling tiles in their basement from the house they had torn down right before my mom was born in 1953. We found them during a purge of the house when he went to the nursing home and threw them out in 1998.

 

I keep T-shirts and hats well past when they need to be kept.

I also collect music...cds, records...8-tracks...yeah, I prolly got it.

 

>>>Media guides. I kept them all.<<<


Finally broke my media guide addiction with MLB putting all of them on one handy storage device. Keep a print copy of the home team book, but that's all.

 

I still have every birthday card that anyone gave me, and I save pretty much save every card which someone has given me or my family. I think it is cool to look back.

I save wine corks for no real reason.