Still Got It

Why do we hang on to some things and not others?

As we have settled into our place here in Barrie, we unpacked a lot of boxes and put things where they belong.

Rose, my wife, is amazing at this and I try and stay out of her way. 

In the process, I had to go through a bunch of  stuff that I've had in storage for a while.  My daughter showed me something that I have had for 30 years! 

This is a brass belt buckle with a large drum set.  I bought it at a mall in Chatham in 1980.  I have never worn it!

I bought this penguin in 1984 at a drug store in Wallaceburg.  His name is Opus from the comic strip "Bloom County".  He originally had a bow tie.  I just thought it was cool at the time, but not very "macho"!

My friend, Steve Roseel bought me this engraved brass letter opener at the end of school in 1984.  Steve played guitar in our short-lived Christian rock band!

This was my high school pencil case!  I have had it since 1983!  Lots of writing inside and out!

I can't explain why I still have these items after so many years.  I have had other things that I thought meant more to me and those things just seem to have disappeared!  Why do we cart things along with us through all of life's different changes.  Perhaps it's because we need a touchstone to the past.

My most treasured thing that I have had for a VERY long time is my Gideon Bible!  I got it in grade school in 1976, and I will never forget signing the declaration of faith in the back.  I had no idea what was in the bible but I knew it was an important book.  It was years later that those seeds of God's words would get down into my spirit and become real to me!  I am thankful to the two men who came by D.A. Gordon School in Wallaceburg that day and put a bible in my hands.  I don't know who they were and I wonder if they realize the impact that they had that day!