david meissner

Things I Lost Or Gave Away

Date: []
Categories: [Blog]
Tags: [Challenges]

The blogging challenge What’s The Oldest Thing You Own? made me think of a similar topic, Things I Lost, Sold Or Gave Away That I Wish I Still Had.

There are a handful of things I’ve disposed of over the years that I wish I had kept. I think this is in chronological order of when I acquired them.

  1. A professional-quality, Japanese-made bamboo slide rule in a leather case that my father used in engineering school in the 1950s. It was a beautifully made historical artifact. Many years after I got rid of it I saw a bargain table in a University bookstore, covered with a variety of slide rules. I almost bought one, but it wouldn’t have been the same.

  2. A small collection of Dr. Strange comics from the 1960s and 70s. I’m not a fan of the heavy-handed Marvel Cinematic Universe movies of today, but I was a big fan of Marvel comics when I was a teenager in the late 60s. Dr. Strange was a favorite because of the mystical stories and psychedelic artwork. I had 20 or 30 Dr. Strange comics going back quite a ways. I stupidly loaned them to an acquaintance of my roommate at the time, and never saw them again.

  3. A twin-lens reflex camera. I don’t remember the brand now, but I bought the camera used at a time when I had very little money, so it couldn’t have been a Rolleiflex. Maybe a Yashica? The camera took great pictures and was enjoyable to use. I learned to develop black and white film and make prints, using darkroom equipment that was available to University students. I still have a few of the prints I made. I think I sold the camera because I had moved on to a 35mm SLR.

  4. A baby-blue Fender Mustang bass guitar. Also bought at a time when I was mostly broke, so I couldn’t afford a bass amp, which made it pretty hard to practice. Before too long a friend sold me his old amp that worked despite some wiring problems. For a month or two I played with a few other amateur musicians, my only experience playing with a “band”. It was fun, but my life was chaotic then, and the memories aren’t all good. But wish I had kept the guitar.

  5. A Stetson fedora from the Seattle hat store Byrnie Utz, that closed in 2019 after 84 years in business. Byrnie Utz was a Seattle institution that I didn’t appreciate at the time, and now it’s gone. I can’t remember why I got rid of the hat. I like fedoras, and I have several of them now, so I really should have kept it.

Ah well, that’s life, right? As Linda Loman says in Death of a Salesman, “Life is a casting off.”