I hear and read stories about families that have had items or cars in their family for generations. Then those items are passed on to other family members or sold to people or collectors. And I’m always curious about the person that purchased or found the item or car. Did they know or plan for it to be passed down through the family? Did they not even think about that or just bought it for themselves? Are you thinking about holding on to your new phone to hand down to your great-grandchildren? I know the word ‘collectible’ is used a lot these days but it’s used for everything now. That being said it makes things less valuable because people are already planning on holding onto it. It’s not a ‘Hey I like this item so I’m going to keep it because I like it.’ It’s a, ‘I’m going to keep this because I could possibly make money off it one day.’ And that takes away the value in my mind.
I have several items that I’m collecting, for both reasons. I’ve got 400+ Hot Wheels that I’ve held onto since the 90s because I like them and also to one day sale them to make money off of them. Or possibly hand them down to my children. Then there are some things that have been in my family for generations. And I think those hold more sentimental value, that’s why they have stayed around. I have some old cameras in my collection that are from my family and some that purchased because I like them. So I’m always curious to why others collect things, do they intend to pass them down?
I wrote a story years ago about a father that passed away and left his car collection to his son. The story was about the prize car that was left behind, a 1967 Ford Shelby GT500. A very beautiful ride that his dad had built in the 70s and kept up with it. It was the car everyone wanted and it won many awards at shows. Johnny’s legacy was preserved in these cars that he had and handed them down to his family when he passed. It wasn’t cause he knew these cars were going to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars one day, it was because he loved them and wanted to hold on to great cars of our culture. And that is why I write this, what am I passing on to my kids?
I have a daughter and hope to have at least one more child. She is my first born and I’m my parents first born. Tomorrow marks the last time that I talked, hugged or kissed my mom, 3 years ago. It’s still hard to believe it’s only been three years because it’s passed in the blink of an eye. There are far more hand-me-downs on her side of the family than there are on my Dad’s side. My Dad’s Dad is the only paternal grandparent I have left and they never really held onto things from our family heritage. Unless other parts of my family have it and I have never met them. But we do have a lot of things from my Mother’s side. We have a lot of furniture from them and old magazines and household items. So it makes me wonder, were things just passed down when a member of the family passed away or when someone moved and needed something. You’ve got to remember that the Great Depression was only 90 years ago and that is when people held on to things that they need and not things that they wanted. Some were smart enough or strong enough to hold on to certain things and that’s why we have antiques today.
One of my favorite shows is Chasing Classic Cars with Wayne Carini and another one is American Pickers. I love seeing what Wayne wants in his collection and what cars he really loves to just see. To look over all the details and explain why things were built a certain way with very beautiful and rare cars. And a lot of his stories are about cars that have been in someone’s family for a long time. They have decided to sale them because they are no longer are able to take care of them or drive them. You see these stories of cars being handed down and you see photos of these families enjoying them and it makes wonder about the person it all started with. Did they think ahead and say ‘This will be an awesome sale one day.’ or ‘I want my family to enjoy this.’ Majority of the time it’s about the family enjoying it.
Then there is Mike and Frank of American Pickers. These guys and Danielle find some amazing history all over the US. Just like Wayne, they are contacted by families about collections that they want to sale. Some of them have whole towns built of old collectibles from decades of a family member collecting things either because they know one day that it will have value or because they really love the stuff. It is nice to see when they find a location that has a ton of stuff that has been hidden from eyes for decades. And then get go through it and show us all these awesome things that we’d never get to see if it wasn’t for them. And for the families to allow them to go in and pick things that hold sentimental value to them or doesn’t. Depends on how long it’s been in the family.
In a world where products are created to be thrown away after only a few years, few months or even one-time use, it’s nice to see things from yesteryear that are still around. And they are still here because we took pride in what we had then and built it to last for years. We weren’t a throwaway society decades ago, we understood that there were limited resources. We knew and figured out ways to reuse stuff. I remember in 4th or 5th grade hearing about recycling and electric public buses and solar panels. And I’m confused why it has taken so many years for these items to barely become mainstream, now?! What took so damn long?! We had this stuff 30 years ago and now it’s just getting popular?! I have hope for the future but it needs to get here fast or everything we have will be trashed and gone before we know we had it. I mean we’re really not taking care of our planet and one of my main goals in life is to teach my children that you leave things the way you found them, if not better. Make sure you’re handing down your own collectibles and your knowledge to your children. They need to understand that there was a time not too long ago that your family didn’t have very much. That at one time that all your families possessions could fit in the back of a covered wagon or Model A if your family were so fortunate.
There is no Planet B…
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