What item do you wish you had kept?

[Roses]

In your case, it's a tin ear

Ehhhhhhhhh?

[Shaker]

My family found letters from a cousin of my grandmother, who was disabled, to a much older man who had fallen in love with her. He wanted to marry her but she refused on the grounds of the age gap. Although my family read the letters and said how beautiful they were, I could never bring myself to - they weren't meant for anyone else's eyes and they were of a generation that valued their privacy. I assume that my family kept them but I don't know.

When my uncle died in 2001, while clearing out his house I found an obviously old and very battered suitcase, quite a size, stuffed - I do mean absolutely stuffed - full of all the letters, handwritten of course and still in the envelopes with George VI stamps - between my maternal grandparents while my granddad was serving on the North Sea convoys during WWII. They both died within three months of each other shortly before I was born so I never knew them; regardless, I didn't read the letters (above and beyond establishing what they actually were) though I did intend one day to get around to sorting them all into chronological order and possibly even transcribing them. I gave the suitcase to my aunt (my uncle's brother) for safekeeping and she later claimed to have burnt the lot. I imagine that the total cache would have been in the mid-hundreds.

I still don't know if that was a lie or not, but I've never forgiven her for it. One of the worst mistakes I ever made and potentially one of the worst betrayals.

[Nearly Sane]

Ehhhhhhhhh?

Shaker's comment was a joke in reference to the idea that it is common for serial killers to keep a trophy, often a body part, from their victims.  I was the riffing on you not getting the joke because you have a tin ear for many jokes and linking the idea of the body parts to that via 'ear'.

[Shaker]

It was a tasteless would-be witticism on my part - though, I would submit in agreement with Grouty, not as tasteless as keeping the wreckage of a fatal plane crash as a souvenir.

[SteveH]

I wish I still had my lovely Pashley roadster. Unfortunately, it was writtrn off in my accident in 2014. However, I recently received slightly North of £20,000 in compensation, so I have bought two new bikes out of it - an 'Elephant Bike', which is a reconditioned and repainted Royal Mail postie's bike, which makes an excellent cargo bike for carrying a week's shopping home; and a Pashley 'Countryman', a relatively lightweight bike for lightly-laden, fast (by my standards) day-rides. It has a beautiful, traditional lugged-and-brazed frame, with traditional geometry (horizontal top-tube etc). It is being delivered tomorrow. Both are made by Pashley, although the Elephant bike doesn't say so, and is my secret Pashley.

https://elephantbike.co.uk/

https://www.pashley.co.uk/bikes/bicycles/countryman.php

[Gordon]

I wish I still had my lovely Pashley roadster. Unfortunately, it was writtrn off in my accident in 2014. However, I recently received slightly North of £20,000 in compensation, so I have bought two new bikes out of it - an 'Elephant Bike', which is a reconditioned and repainted Royal Mail postie's bike, which makes an excellent cargo bike for carrying a week's shopping home; and a Pashley 'Countryman', a relatively lightweight bike for lightly-laden, fast (by my standards) day-rides. It has a beautiful, traditional lugged-and-brazed frame, with traditional geometry (horizontal top-tube etc). It is being delivered tomorrow. Both are made by Pashley, although the Elephant bike doesn't say so, and is my secret Pashley.

https://elephantbike.co.uk/

https://www.pashley.co.uk/bikes/bicycles/countryman.php

Your countryman looks very elegant - you'll need to provide us with a 'first ride' report.

I'm also a fan of two wheels, but I insist on there being an engine between them.

[SteveH]

Will do.

[Harrowby Hall]

When I was about 12, I was given a brass Victorian microscope. It came in a mahogany box which also contained all kinds of ancillary equipment.

I loved it and looked at all kinds things - insect wings, pond life ... you name it. Unfortunately, I did not have the wisdom not just to like it but to cherish it. I certainly did not look after it.

I still have the microscope - but it is hardly usable. The mahogany box and its contents disappeared long, long ago - probably while I was still in my teens, but anyway, it remained in my parents' house when I left home. To them it was little more than junk.

Were I still to have the box and its contents and the microscope in good condition, it would possible by quite valuable.

[Roses]

It was a tasteless would-be witticism on my part - though, I would submit in agreement with Grouty, not as tasteless as keeping the wreckage of a fatal plane crash as a souvenir.

What a fuss about trivia. Anyone would think I had taken a body part of one of the victims, instead of a small piece of wreckage from one of the wings.

[Maeght]

We had an old plate camera we played with when I was little - I remember the bellows and the brass fittings - we wrecked it. Also an old piano accordion. Lovely things we destroyed as kids! Maybe the Repair Shop could have rescued them still???

[Nearly Sane]

What a fuss about trivia. Anyone would think I had taken a body part of one of the victims, instead of a small piece of wreckage from one of the wings.

I'm not sure it's trivia, rather it's a matter of taste but in my opinion, I can see why you might want to have kept it. It was obviously something you remember because of where it happened and for a child of that age would be more excitement than anything. And I think it would be an interesting story for some of your grandchildren, So I don't see it as tasteless.

[Roses]

I'm not sure it's trivia, rather it's a matter of taste but in my opinion, I can see why you might want to have kept it. It was obviously something you remember because of where it happened and for a child of that age would be more excitement than anything. And I think it would be an interesting story for some of your grandchildren, So I don't see it as tasteless.

The aircrash of course wasn't trivia , it was awful, although I admit it seemed exciting to me at the age of 12. The small piece of wreckage I collected, and wish I had kept, was because it was so weird that my sisters and I were permitted to remove it from the crash site, which seems unbelievable now. I guess I wanted it to prove my story.. My children and grandchildren have always been fascinated by this occurance.