Rules:
1) It can’t be a memento. The item must have some actual utility, but it need not be used often.
2) Oldness is derived from duration of my ownership rather than the chronological age of the thing.
3) If there is a tie in duration of ownership, win goes to the thing with oldest chronological age.
My Ten Oldest Things.
- Companion Classics edition of Treasure Island. Published 1925. Inscribed in by me with black Sharpie. Circa 1985.
- Tamrac camera strap I got with my first Nikon FM2. Circa 1989.
- Set of Craftsman sockets received for Christmas. Circa 1990.
- A multi-volume set of Sherlock Holmes, annotated. Purchased from a Signals catalog with my first income tax return. Circa 1992.
- Copy of the Tao Te Ching. Stephen Mitchell translation. High school travel pass dated 1994-1995 tipped into pages. Circa 1994.
- Set of four Melamine camp coffee cups that once belonged my mother’s parents. Taken from parent’s kitchen when I moved into my first apartment. Circa 1997.
- Small, copper bottomed Rever Ware frying pan.Taken from parent’s kitchen when I moved into my first apartment. Circa 1997.
- Grey Patagonia flannel. Size large. Stained with popcorn “butter” at a dollar showing of The Phantom Menace. Circa 1999.
- Benchmade McHenry & Williams pocket knife. Too large to be useful. Purchased in the great sell off of survival gear post Y2K bug. Circa 2001 (obviously).
- Cookie monster blue Patagonia R2 Regulator fleece. Purchase during the dissolution of my marriage and worn continuously through the winter of 2003. Circa 2003.
