MiSC
Banned
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 1,611 
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Post by MiSC on Jun 27, 2010 22:13:21 GMT -5
Let's imagine that someone came in your house and was helping you sort stuff. (We're only imagining, so there's no anxiety about having someone in your house. Just some random, nice, non-threatening someone helping out.)
What's the one thing in your house that would really make them *** their head and say, "Huh?" The thing that makes them really wonder, "What the heck is that about?" when they realize it's something you've saved.
For me, it's half of a brick. It is, as bricks go, a pretty one. It's enameled on one side, so it's a deep brown, glassy texture on that side.
The short story is: It was one of the cornerstones at my grandma's house. It was my favorite brick. The smooth, glassy one that I loved to run my hand across as I was passing by, just at the corner of the porch at Grandma's.
It's still my favorite brick. It's sitting on top of the china cabinet with some crystals and pretty rocks that the boys have brought home. The crystals were given to them by my mother, who was given them by her mother.
Grandma went to Arkansas fairly regularly many decades ago, and was always bringing home crystals. She'd press them into our hands as we'd be getting into the car to leave and she'd say something like, "Here's a lil' purty for you, baby." Just something she thought was pretty, that might give us a smile.
So, yeah. Crystals on a brick. Probably the weirdest little spot in my house.
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Post by dtesposito on Jun 28, 2010 9:22:47 GMT -5
You know, I've thought about this question and can't think of anything I've saved that would be considered quirky or particularly strange. When imagining someone coming in to look at my stuff, they would say--why do you have so many books? I have boxes and boxes and bookcases full of books.
Other than the books, I no longer have any huge quantities of anything. I guess someone might think it weird to see 6 or 8 boxes of some kind of food product on my shelf, but that's because I got a really good deal on it and it won't spoil before I eat it. And I don't have that many of those around at any given time, because I really do eat the stuff up in between the really good sales.
I probably have more furniture than the average apartment (and that is storage type stuff--like a couple of big filing cabinets and some extra dressers) but I can honestly say that if you didn't look at the huge quantity of books, you wouldn't see anything too out of the ordinary these days.
Diane
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Post by canna on Jun 28, 2010 9:52:28 GMT -5
Might no be too wierd, I have a lot of cameras - old cameras from '30's to '80's. They belonged to my Dad who was an amature photographer/collector. About 5 or 6 boxes full. Just a few of them out on display, not a lot. Interesting to take them out and just look at them.
In the garage I have a huge old piece of wood from a tree that fell in a storm at my old house. It's kind of a unique looking shape, and is on a shelf there. Also 3 big old ice tongs that were my Grandmothers from the days of block ice delivery for the "IceBox".
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Post by uualto1973 on Jul 6, 2010 21:42:03 GMT -5
I was born with a heart defect and have had a pacemaker since age 21. They need replacing every several years, and I have most of the old ones.
That's not so odd, I guess. But it's not like they are of any use to me or anyone else. And there isn't exactly a typical "home" for used pacemakers in a person's house. Medicine, old crutches, broken watches, etc... those are things you would expect to find in specific places. But for a while one of my old pacemakers was hanging around (in a pile of other stuff) on my daughter's old changing table in our basement.
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Post by CaringFriend on Jul 6, 2010 23:58:04 GMT -5
Ha! So funny that your weird thing should be 1/2 a brick!  I was just thinking about weirdness recently when I looked at my brick attached to a very beautiful handmade and highly polished plaque. When I was teaching elementary school, I had been there almost from the day it was built. Many, many years later, they were demolishing a goodly portion of the building to add on and renovate. It tore at my heart to see that old well-worn building go. So I scavenged an unbroken brick from the rubble and had my DH make a plaque for it. I was even going to have an engraved plate made to attach to it. Years passed and the plaque was never made because I couldn't think of the "perfect" thing to have written on it. Now more years have passed and a week or so ago, I stopped, looked at it, and thought, "OMG! It's just a brick!" Now I won't discard it because it will come in handy as a door stop to keep the breezes from banging the doors shut.  To all readers here: My website www.OrganizedFinancialHarmony.com will close at the end of September. If there are any articles there which you found helpful, you may want to go back and copy/paste them for future reference. |
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Post by fluffernut - now Jannie on Jul 7, 2010 7:29:48 GMT -5
When i was a kid on vacation, I( found a limestone rock near a lake, it had all kind of fossilized sea creatures on it, or in it. I saved that Rock and kept it to this day. I've had it fOR 50 years, because I figure I was about 7 or eight when I found it and now I'm 57!
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Post by DJ on Jul 7, 2010 7:31:46 GMT -5
a stick with moss. friend's teeth. dead peoples driver's licenses. a whisker from almost every cat i've ever owned. tiny bottles with sand from beaches from coast to coast and hawaii. hypodermic needles and LRS in a fire safe. a box labeled 'fertiliser & other explosives' a box of chemistry test kits.
i have a lot of weird junk :/ this is a fair part of why i decline help with dealing with it. people tend to look at the cutely labeled bottles of sand and think it's a better keeper than some scary looking beakers & chemicals but i actually use the chems weekly. then i am in a muddle about what i should even keep and ahg.
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Post by Script on Jul 7, 2010 9:02:17 GMT -5
What's the one thing in your house that would really make them shake their head and say, "Huh?" There is always at least one screwdriver on top of my DH's dresser in the now totally desqualored master bedroom. People have in fact commented on it........ Here is his nice [vintage -- family hand me down ] dresser. With some of his cherished Flow Blue china ornaments on top. And then the tools......................... Why? Well, our 30 year old 'new' hot water radiators no longer self-bleed properly. The plumbing guys who installed them are no longer around. DH, in the winter, is constantly on the alert to bleed these rads manually, as this room gets cold enough as it is[windows on three walls, north facing]. Sometimes, I will tuck the screwdriver away in his top drawer [sox]. It always finds its way back out.....  boast: for the first time in my whole entire adult life I am living with a bedroom in which there is room for ALL of our clothes in our closets/dressers. EVERYTHING HAS A HOME.  boast #2: we no longer have ANY broken windows in this room [we had some patched for 25 years with cardboard]. Richard fixed them all, very expensive as they are small-paned casements, 5 years ago. boast #3: we got new carpet here 3 years ago [?, can't remember date]. To replace the 27 year old very shabby broadloom. boast #4: my drawers are neat too! thank you June memorial Purge-a-thon folks for the encouragements! |
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MiSC
Banned
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 1,611
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Post by MiSC on Jul 7, 2010 9:13:09 GMT -5
I think my three Flamingo garden ornaments attract the most raised eyebrows - I live in Australia and bought them from America on e-bay!!! I absolutely love them, but even the guy who sold them to me thought it was funny for them to go so far!! I also have a"Frannie Flamingo" wobbly figurine which wears a Christmas hat and looks a little intoxicated!!! Geez, even to me they are weird, its a long way from here to see a Flamingo!!! I just think Flamingos prove God has a sense of humor!  Ostrirches too. And emus. God loves to mess with birds, evidently. But I love platypuses the best. He just threw those in to confuse the heck out of every living person on the planet. |
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Post by peppermint66 on Jul 7, 2010 9:36:06 GMT -5
I guess here, that one thing would be Kermit the Frog. Not so unusual, really, until you realize he is 5'7" tall ! He has spent some time riding "shotgun" in the passenger seat of my car, strapped in with his seatbelt. he has spent time sitting in the rocking chair, or enjoying the tv from the end of the couch. He was sent to the Doom Room for a long period of time by Hairy, for bad behavior maybe? Right now, he is enjoying the summer weather from the bench on the sunporch.
Kermit came to live with us when I was working at the Mall. The restaurant I managed was right across from a huge arcade. kermit was one of the prizes. You needed to win a bajillion tickets to take him home of course. One of my regular customers was a video game junkie and I mentioned in passing that I really loved that giant kermit. The next day he walked in the door with kermie in tow!
he traded in 50,000 tickets and a huge bowl of homemade bean soup to the girl who worked the arcade and she let him take Kermit !
Oh, I also have a nice collection of superballs, those really bouncy ones, from the same arcade. That same girl used to get bored and bounce them across the Mall into our restuarant!
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Post by downandout on Jul 10, 2010 6:06:36 GMT -5
sounds like a cool box!
unearthed this a couple weeks ago and couldnt part with it then so i stuck it back into another box. keep seeing it as its sitting right on top you know and i will think about it now and then. we have used this thing from time to time to hold pencils or toothbrushes or twizzlesticks. i think we picked this up at a yard sale where you buy the whole box? anyway its been weeks and i just asked myself why on earth am i keeping this? so now its in the garbage. this makes ME shake my head i imagine someone else would too.
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Post by mrsmess on Jul 10, 2010 6:18:52 GMT -5
I have lots of odd things...being an artist I am attracted to the unusual I suppose. I have cupboards full of things like broken china, dolls heads, etc....perhaps some people would say, "Huh?" about some of these things....
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Post by downandout on Jul 10, 2010 7:02:23 GMT -5
see now the dolls heads would just freak me out!  |
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Post by DJ on Jul 10, 2010 14:39:57 GMT -5
the fertilisers with the post 9-11 security restrictions really will set off some security measures. it's all chemicals for the aquarium but because they're acids and alkalines and fertilisers they can cause some security probs during shipping. also don't want anyone getting into it and getting burnt  the kermit's the winner for me currently |
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Post by usedtobeneat on Jul 10, 2010 14:56:20 GMT -5
A 16 year old frozen placenta from my oldest daughters birth. My last three kids were born at home and you have to bury the placenta for luck, but my husband didnt have time right then, so the midwife stuck it in a zip lock freezer bag and froze it so he would bury it the next day. Its still up there, but he did bury the other placentas the same day the other two were born.
We have moved several times since then and always taken it in a cooler, with ice, with us.
I really should get him to bury that today. But I probably wont.
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