"Recycling" Childhood Memorabilia

[BradH]

Over the holiday break I went through some old boxes and Rubbermaid tubs from the attic and came across many childhood items that I’d forgotten about. The group included pennants that my dad had as a kid in the 1960s and my stuff from the ‘70s and ‘80s.

I started to put the old posters and pennants back in the attic, as many are torn and all of them have pin holes, but then I decided to make better use of them. I put three of the posters (shown) of Mattingly, Yount and Brett on the empty wall of my basement workshop. I always loved the Yount piece and still remember getting it from a sporting goods store owner in the summer of '83 (a year after Yount had helped Milwaukee to the '82 World Series.) The gentleman took it off the wall in his store to make room for newer materials that were arriving for the fall.

I should note that while I actually do some woodwork and home repairs in this workshop, it’s recently become more of an overflow space for recent baseball card or memorabilia purchases that I haven’t yet put away…

Next I will figure out a way to hang some of those old pennants from the ceiling. I figure their dollar value is almost zero, but the memories are priceless. And I can’t really damage them any more than they already are, so why not enjoy them? This is better than keeping them stowed away in the attic.

Anyone else have a "memorabilia recycling" story to share?

[bdk1976]

Awesome!

My FIL recently found his old Seattle Pilots pennant - it's missing a piece of the tip but now hangs out in his garage. Love seeing it when over there.

I have plans for displaying/incorporating some of my 'worthless' material when I complete my shop this year.

[CobbSpikedMe]

Looks good Brad. I still want a nice condition example of that lunch box you have on the shelf. I've wanted one for years, just never really went after it. Someday I'll pick one up though.

AndyH

[jbsports33]

Watch out, your whole basement may end up looking like that - no really that is cool and I always like seeing setups like this - Jimmy

[yankeesjetsfan]

Love the set up. I recognize that lunch box. My elementary school had one for the kids to play with and I spent hours with it playing imaginary baseball games on the back of the lunch box since it had a baseball diamond on it. I need to have one for the childhood memories alone.

My mom threw out a lot of my baseball stuff. Copies of baseball digest, my bats from Yankees Bat Day, pennants, yearbooks. Looking back I kinda want to give her the business. She threw out a lot of cool stuff. A couple of my Yankees mugs from Fan Appreciation Day survived. I used to go every year for those mugs. I still have a pennant from Pennant day back in 1982 that's all blacken. I need to replace that. Everything else is gone.

Mike