WQ - Collecting Memorabilia

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I'm participating in the Wednesday Quotes link-up hosted by Marsha at Always Write. I had great plans for getting this written up several days ago but, as so often happens in my world, I got busy with a bunch of other things. Besides, I really wasn't all that sure what I'd write about. The prompt is Memorabilia, as Things that Inspire.

When stumped on a prompt, sometimes a definition helps. Memorabilia is defined as "objects kept or collected because of their historical interest, especially those associated with memorable people or events". So . . . souvenirs, keepsakes, antiques, family heirlooms, and basically anything you'd see at a museum, I guess.

At first, I thought I probably haven't got much in the way of memorabilia around my house these days. After all, I tried to pare things down when we moved and not bring clutter. I used to keep a lot of memorabilia - concert ticket stubs, sports event programs, yearbooks, souvenirs, Coca-Cola collectibles, and all sorts of odds and ends that reminded me of interesting places and events.

I used to keep the ticket stubs for every concert and every hockey game, and who knows what else. I think the only ones I still have now are these from the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988. And honestly? I'm not sure where they are at the moment - in a photo album, I think. 

Not only did we attend a few events, I was in a mass choir that sang in the Olympic Arts Festival and in the Opening Ceremonies. (These photos are from a coffee table book about the Calgary games. I added an arrow showing my approximate position in the choir!)

And I have this nice sweater . . . that is a couple of sizes too small for me now. But I've kept it, as well as that black wool robe, because it's really cool memorabilia. 

My life is cluttered with the most wonderful memorabilia. And wonderful creative experiences. ~George Stevens

History nowadays is recorded in memorabilia. If you can't purchase a shopping bag that alludes to something, people won't believe it ever happened. ~Elizabeth McCracken

My husband and I started collecting Coca-Cola memorabilia right at the beginning of our relationship, It was a fun hobby, but we made the mistake of not limiting our collection to just one type of object. If we'd decided we were only going to collect trays or glasses or signs, that would have been smart. As it was we wound up with a wide-ranging eclectic collection that quickly outgrew our ability to display it to advantage. We decorated several rooms with Coca-Cola pieces and our entire kitchen and dining room was Coca-Cola themed, but we had so much that it didn't have meaning any more, and we started paring down. If we couldn't enjoy having it by using it or displaying it, maybe we didn't need it. 

I have stuff from 1979, 1980 in my collection. But I also have things from 2012. So I don't know if it's memorabilia as much as it is holding on to things that I find relevant that most people might not. ~Ian MacKaye

One collection of items I still have that I consider memorabilia is my coffee cups. Oddly, I had a lot of Coca-Cola coffee cups! But I also started collecting the Tim Horton's coffee mugs that came out at Christmas, and the family knew that was a gift that I would really appreciate. I also picked out coffee cups as my souvenir of choice a few times, and we have some coffee cups showing off our favorite sports teams. I like Starbucks mugs too. This is memorabilia that is useful, although my husband insists that I have too many coffee mugs. (He is wrong. 😉)

Mugs with Frank Lloyd Wright artwork

Calgary Olympics memorabilia mug!

My Tim Horton's chalkboard mug for
Back to School 2017, with my husband's
reaction! I haven't stopped, but I've cut back.

As I was rambling through this post, I realized we don't even have ticket stubs for sporting events and concerts any more, because our tickets are all on our phones. But we do have the photos, and sometimes the t-shirt! And concert experiences would be a whole post of its own. I was thinking about it because two of the best concert experiences I've had were seeing Twenty One Pilots with my daughter and her friends, and a couple days ago they released a new single. A new album is coming out soon, and that means there will be a tour, and I assume my daughter and I will go. What will it look like this time? What memorabilia will we have to remember it?

I don't collect any memorabilia. I wish I'd have kept everything I had. But who knew you had to keep it. Just gave it away. And we lost so much and we didn't look after a lot of it. ~Ringo Starr

  

Wednesday Quotes 2024 is hosted by Marsha at Always Write. This post will be linked at #WQ #162: Things/Memorabilia/Month-End Review

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