Comments on: Greatest Hits of ‘07: What’s the Oldest Thing You Own?

By: Kathy

Kathy — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:36:52 +0000

I have a book of photographs from around the world that was published in 1892. It has detailed captions that reflect the biases of the author.

By: Sophie

Sophie — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:15:42 +0000

A green t-shirt from the mid seventies, printed to celebrate my dad’s graduation from college.

Moth holes included.

By: kittymama

kittymama — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:04:09 +0000

I have a Swedish Bible that I assume my forebears brought over when they emigrated to the United States in the 19th century. (There might be a date in the front, but my husband is asleep in the room where it is.) But as far as things we use (because I don’t read Swedish), we have two little old chairs, one that is a “telephone chair” from the ’20s or ’30s, and one that is a folding wooden orchestra chair that is dated 1896 on the bottom.

Our house was built in the early 1950s, and most of our furniture and a lot of our knickknacks are from the ’30s through the ’70s.

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 22:50:11 +0000

The oldest thing I own, and use regularly, is my kitchen table. I got it after my grandmother passed and I know that my father remember’s it from _his_ grandmother’s kitchen. The table still has a brass label stating who made it and where, though I don’t know what it says, off the top of my head. I also have my grandmother’s bureau that I use all the time.

By: Celeste

Celeste — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:52:50 +0000

My apartment building was built in eighteen fifty something, originally as a train station (it is cool, my windows are huge and my ceilings are HIGH). Also, I have my grandmother’s old Lithuanian prayer book from like 1910 or something.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:14:26 +0000

My house was built in 1911….

I have a pair of socks I got at the Boston Marathon in 1990 that have been successfully matched and not lost in the wash for 17 years…

By: airship

airship — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:32:44 +0000

Unless you count my hunk of petrified wood, the oldest item I own is a Spanish ‘pieces of eight’ silver coin. (The eight reales coin was often cut into eight pieces to pay for smaller items, hence its name.) Mine was minted in Peru from plundered Inca silver in 1679.

The oldest thing I use on a regular basis is my grandmother’s cane, which my father also used. I inherited it when he died. It must be at least 40-50 years old, since she died 23 years ago and had been using it almost as far back as I can remember. I’m absolutely positive she didn’t buy it new. She never bought anything new.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:42:06 +0000

I have a few fossils that I found 3 feet under creesto and BJB’s fossils.

By: Brammimonde

Brammimonde — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:39:38 +0000

I am the proud owner of a legally purchased archeological artifact: The clay foot of a small ceramic pot dating back to the 12th century.

That makes the oldest thing I own about 900 years old.

It put me back $3 and doesn’t look like much of anything save for the catalogue number painted on it’s end.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:48:11 +0000

I have a couple of Catholic books from my mothers (adopted) great grandfather’s sister from 1863, and a medal from a secret society (the heptasophs) who apparently became sooo secret I can’t find anything on them after about 1870.