what is the oldest thing you own?

Post Reply New Topic

You didn't see boom boxes in the streets until the late 1970s.

Just like cell phones have existed since 1973, but were really not very common until the late 1990s.

Just like the Internet, in some form, existed since about 1969, but wasn't used by the majority of people until the mid-to-late 90s.

For all intents and purposes, the invention of the World Wide Web about the late 1980s was the impetus which started the Internet as we know it. But it really wasn't a common thing, like I said, until the mid-to-late 90s.

The technology also has to be "perfected."

The state of the cell phone, technologically, was still very primitive in the 1980s--it really wasn't practicable for most people.

The transitional item between the use, exclusively, of home phones, and the cell phone, was the "beeper." It could be said that the beeper was one of the "great symbols" of the 1990s.

My childhood lunch box, I had a school bus lunch box with Disney characters & I have a Frosty the Snowman book from 1978.

A Roman coin.

My mom brought home a set of radio books from a second-hand store last year. I have "Elements of Radio" from the 1940's and an army manual from the 1950's, both signed by a physicist (I also have his first-edition copy of Contact by Carl Sagan). They're the oldest things I own, but I also have in my keeping a Morgan dollar from 1898, which my dad lent me.

Probably my person. I'd have to have a hunt about and I can't do that here.

An original Corgi Routemaster with the little conductor in the back that was made in 1964. I can't believe the guy at the toy store let me have it for $20. I bought it the week leading up to my birthday, last year.

The oldest things that my family and I most commonly come across are those small 1960s-1970s era items that have somehow been "kicking around" in drawers over the last several decades e.g., old pens, keyrings, lighters, matchbook covers, paper ephemera, etc. The most interesting find was an old typewriter eraser.

Enclosed is a (LINK) picturing a sculpture of a typewriter eraser.

(LINK) https://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2866133105

I have a table from 1966, the table was in my childhood house.

I own several books from the 1970s as well as a Bible from the 40s.

Probably a cast iron pan from between 1912-16. Not sure what else I have, it's hard to know the ages without researching them. I think I might have a few books from around 1930-40.

I do have plenty of rocks, and some fossils, and a Petoskey or two.

My Grandad's First World War helmet. 100 plus years old now.

Used to own a couple of fossil trilobites. They must have been at least a quarter of a billion years old. Mom seems to have thrown them away.

I have some old stamps (collect them - can't remember the oldest), and old coins (don't collect them - one from 1923 or 4).

Also, I have my uncle's sweatshirt that he wore when he was off-duty (military) in WWII, a few letters that he wrote to my aunt in WWII, when they were courting, and a 78rpm record that they made when they were courting (they sang on it - they used to have these booths where you could go and do that).