[batman911]

I have a styrofoam coffee cup that had something written on it when it was normal size. The cup was taken to 10,000 feet below the ocean surface (outside the pressure hull) and is now the size of a thimble (gas bubbles in the styrofoam were all compressed by the water pressure). The wall of the cup is paper thin now.

[bestmickey]

For some reason I can't "quote" your entry. Just want to say that is VERY special! That was some fan you had. Is that when you were in Albany?

[rhsgypsylady]

My Blue Willow China collection. I've been collecting since 1970 when my mother (who is deceased now) bought me my first set of BW dishes with S&H Green Stamps. Anyone remember those?

[Shimpy]

It's got to be my motorcycle. Honda Goldwing, 2003 , 100,000+ miles and still as quiet, smooth and powerful as the day I got it. You don't know the meaning of relaxing until you get on a motorcycle and just enjoy your ride.

My father was interviewed on TV because he was in the middle of a severe storm (a microburst) in a campground in New Hampshire.I called the station and asked if I could get a copy and they sent me a video.My dad is still around but it's nice to know that I'll always be able to watch him even after he's gone.

[K9-Lovers]

My mother had four sisters. I have a collection of letters and cards from three of them, dating back to when they were in elementary school. My mother never kept her correspondence because she traveled so much, but her sisters kept every scrap of paper! It is so interesting to read letters from my mother to them, and vice versa.

[swrinfla]

There are several things which I consider "cool," but one that may be coolest is a small leather-bound book containing nearly two dozen pictures of furniture owned by my late wife's grandmother. The book dates from the late 1920s.

Coolest is that there are pictures of at least six chairs which are still in my living/dining room. They are identified as "belonged to my grandmother." That dates them as at least 175 years old, I think!

SWR

[BogeyBoy]

I bought a silver dollar with one of the first dollars I earned. For some reason I have held on to it all these years. Came close to loosing it once: was at a movie and heard the guy behind me say, "I found it in the lobby and it's a 1921". I had just sat in the lobby a few minutes before. Reached in my pocket and realized my silver dollar was gone. Turned and asked him if he had found a 1921 silver dollar, he said yes and handed it to me. Never carried it with me since then.

Also have an old dime my mother gave me a few years ago, she thought it was worth something. I checked - it's worth 10 cents. (Well, maybe a little more but not the thousands she may have imagined.) But I still keep it.

[Boomer]

Originally Posted by rhsgypsylady

My Blue Willow China collection. I've been collecting since 1970 when my mother (who is deceased now) bought me my first set of BW dishes with S&H Green Stamps. Anyone remember those?

Hi rhsgypsylady,

Yes, I do...

and I also remember the story.

And I bet you know it, too...

the story the Blue Willow pattern tells -- about the young couple who loved each other but were not allowed to be together because her father had promised her to a wealthy, old man. So the young lovers ran away and were turned into doves by the gods.

Those are such pretty dishes. I was told the story of the pattern many, many years ago by someone dear to me who used those dishes every day. I have a warm spot in my heart for Blue Willow dishes.

Boomer

[Kathie]

Sophia Loren's Directors chair from the movie Grumpier Old Men. Won it at a charity auction.

[skyguy79]

Letters written between my father and mother during WWII while he was stationed overseas. They ran from early 1943 until the war ended in 1945. I had hundreds of them and read them all shortly before moving to TV, and kept select ones and discarded the rest. They were in a wooden box larger than the size of the old milk boxes they used to used for home delivery... if you remember back then!

What was really interesting about them is that when my father was deployed overseas my parents barely knew each other. Only met a couple of times. By the time the war ended and before he returned home, they were practically planning on getting married even though no proposal took place until he was back. (He had no leave where he could return to the states like our military can more readily do now) And I'm sure having me was in the back of their minds too!

There were more letters in the box including some written by a brother, his parents and my namesake that was KIA on Iowa Jima! Lots and lots of reading!

[swimdawg]

Originally Posted by Tom Hannon

My 45 juke box is still sounding good. A shame there will be no place for it when I become a Villager frog.

Would that be a Wurlitzer juke box?

As I look out my sunroom window right now, I can see the Wurlitzer sign lit up on the building that used to manufacture those Wurlitzer juke boxes.....in North Tonawanda, NY. They also made the famous Wurlitzer organs in that building.

Unfortunately, a sign of the times........juke boxes and Wurlitzer organs no longer manufactured here. I took my dawg to obedience training in that Wurlitzer building.

BTW, she did not graduate Magna Cum Laude.....the little pipsqueak!

[faithfulfrank]

Wow.....I thought I had some cool stuff, but not like what I've read here from others.....an impressive read!

I have one of the very first ping putters from Scottsdale Az that was my Dad's. He was a par golfer 50 years ago. My collection of first day covers...sadly not worth much nowadays, but I find them interesting. I have some very unique old tools still. My Dad's WWII pictures. His immigration paperwork from Ellis Island dated 1930.

Most of my "cool" stuff was sold or given to my kids so I can make the Florida move.....hard to justify keeping much of this stuff when you downsize....

Some of our new modern stuff...my iphone, my Prius. My Kreg system.

Our washer and dryer "sings" to us when it is done. Kinda cool. My wife responds to it better then I do......

Might sound dumb, but I like my two Rapid Reels hose reels. If you ever use one you will never go back to having a cheapo plastic hosereel again. I think it is cool.

Frank

[Bill-n-Brillo]

Hmmmmm......lemme see......

The "coolest": This would probably be some of the cars we still own but also a whole bunch of cars we've owned over the course of time.....though maybe "the ones we used to own" isn't responsive to the thread. Mostly older cars but some have been new ones that we really enjoyed. Regardless, we - both Sandy and I - just enjoy the heck out of cars. Always have and always will. For us, it's a whole lot of fun to simply hop in one and go out for a bite to eat or take a drive in the countryside or go to a car show or whatever. The old ones remind us of simpler times - and the cars were simpler back then, too! Easy to work on and still (for the ones we've had) easy to find most any part you'd need. Fun, fun, fun!!

Bill

[graciegirl]

I have a collection of silver baby christening cups, starting with those in our family and adding to it by finding them here and there over the years and on ebay.

I love to look at them and clean them and see the dings. My husbands is missing the handle. I can see him banging on his high chair for more milk!

There is one, the most elaborate that is engraved. "To Mackie from Mama"..and the date is 1884.

You wonder how they ended up out of the family, but I am taking good care of them.

There is one with the Campbells kids and some have elaborate handles of animals. Most have engraved names.

I display them in a big silver frame that once was for a picture but now has shelves. Someone sweet and wonderful made it for me.