What's the coolest thing you own?
 

Taking a lead from RichieLion's post re: "COOLEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!", I'm wondering what is the coolest thing you OWN (your pet(s) and/or your home in The Villages to be excluded)?

For me, it's my collection of letters from Civil War soldiers, and other original effects from that same time period.

What about you?

The coolest thing I own is a 4-ft. nude statue of a young boy, carved from some very hard wood, probably Micronesian and probably used as a grave ornament. I have seen a very similar piece in the Rockefeller collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. My husband and I collected American primitive art and this is the only thing I have that is not American.

I have a collection of 35 sterling silver baby christening cups.

I have a two page letter written by General Ulysses S. Grant discussing civil war strategy. It is written to a friend of his named John. In it, he says, "Lincoln is skeptical of my plan, but what the hell does Lincoln know of war?"

There is also a tintype picture of Grant along with the letter. The letter is very old and very fragile. I use to display it in a frame, but have since sealed it in protective coating and store it in a secure location.

It was sent to me anonymously by one of my radio listeners about 20 years ago. It has been examined by numerous authorities including the Smithsonian, who would like to have it.

So far, I have had one offer from an individual to purchase it from me. The offer was $49.

JLK

I'll give you $50, sight unseen

Buddy Holly and The Crickets
 

The letters Jerry Allison, The Crickets drummer, wrote to me when they were first getting started and the pictures of us then and now.

The coolest thing in our house is a 7 foot tall suit of armour, we call him Reggie. Right now he is guarding the dinning room but he likes to move to different places occasionally. He's going to be Sir Lancelot for Halloween !

One of my "treasures" are letters written by my Dad to his Mother, and Mother's replies, when he was in the military in France during WWI. So precious.

A mint condition program from the 1967 NFL/AFL World Championship game between the KC Cheifs, and the Green Bay Packers in LAs Collesium, later to be known as Super Bowl I.

A baseball hit into the right field bleachers at Yankee Stadium in the 1930's. It was not commonplace for players to sign balls in those days, but the home run was important enough that when a fan appeared after the game with his young son and showed the ball to departing players, Lou Gehrig, Lefty Gomez and Babe Ruth signed it.

I knew the young son, who became a Catholic priest. I was his early morning altar server for a couple of years. When he was dying of cancer he gave me the ball and the sketchy information about it's history.

I have an original flight jacket worn by my father with the Flying Tigers. It has an American Flag on the back and Chinese writing.

Surrounded by Bambi, wolves, cougar, bear, turkeys, ~~~
 

Four park-like acres in the country of beautiful southern Oregon ~~ very kewl for this lifelong city girl :MOJE_whot: I won't have it forever so am trying to enjoy while I can :p

I've got two beautiful grandfather clocks my father made from scratch- one made of mahogany & one of southern pine.

Oh wait a minute- what was I thinking?- the coolest thing I own is my home in Virginia Trace! Duh!

My father's Army patch from WWII is number two. Number one is a diamond ring. My mother and her family were in a German concentration camp during WWII. Like many, gems were sewn into their clothing. Being Aryan (Goebbels wanted my grandfather's estate outside of Berlin), they were not as thoroughly searched as were others, so managed to keep their gems. When there was a chance to escape, my mother was given the diamonds from a family tiara for bribes, etc. The one diamond she managed to save was put into a ring. So, this is the last piece of her family -- the rest never survived the camps (so far as we know).