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What makes something an heirloom?

putthison.com

31–40 of 79 posts

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#31

My dad dug out of his B-17 navigator's desk a chunk of German flak that missed his head by about an inch. The only reason it missed him was because he had just turned to grab his flak jacket. It was his good luck charm for the rest of his life, and is a prized heirloom. It's about an inch and a half long, just right to carry in his pocket for his subsequent combat missions. Maybe an heirloom is an object that is simu…

I've got a slide rule that belonged to my great grandfather, who was an architect. Been thinking of actually learning how to use one, I'll probably order a new one to keep the heirloom one in good condition.

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#32
post #17
post #5

I recently inherited the Minolta X-700 and Nikon F4 film cameras from my grandfather who is now quite old and nearing the end of his life. Neither had been used in a long time. I gave them a good cleaning and purchased some film. Besides using disposable cameras when I was younger, I had never shot on film with a proper camera. I have grown up admiring beautiful photos of animals and nature printed on the walls of my…

When you can, or feel up to it, try some Kodak Ektar. You'll like it, its much less grainy than the Portra with better color registration.

Ektar is awesome film. E100 Slide film is fun too!

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#33
post #5

I recently inherited the Minolta X-700 and Nikon F4 film cameras from my grandfather who is now quite old and nearing the end of his life. Neither had been used in a long time. I gave them a good cleaning and purchased some film. Besides using disposable cameras when I was younger, I had never shot on film with a proper camera. I have grown up admiring beautiful photos of animals and nature printed on the walls of my…

Beautiful story :)

Both cameras are well respected, especially the Nikon F4. Your grandfather was a man of taste!

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#34

My dad dug out of his B-17 navigator's desk a chunk of German flak that missed his head by about an inch. The only reason it missed him was because he had just turned to grab his flak jacket. It was his good luck charm for the rest of his life, and is a prized heirloom. It's about an inch and a half long, just right to carry in his pocket for his subsequent combat missions. Maybe an heirloom is an object that is simu…

I've got a slide rule that belonged to my great grandfather, who was an architect. Been thinking of actually learning how to use one, I'll probably order a new one to keep the heirloom one in good condition.

My grandad had a tape measure which he regularly oiled and took very good care off.

On the flip side of that, today's tradesmen usually just leave their tape measures out in the rain and mud. Seen it twice now just in my own garden (garden office built in January, and home extensions now in July). Disposable culture!

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#35
post #19

Somehow, this seems too much like a Rolex ad. Bloomberg: "Rolex Prices to Drop Further as Supply Surges: Morgan Stanley. Pre-owned watch market flooded with Rolex, Patek and AP"[1] Rolex is a strange business. One of their CEOs once said "we are not in the watch business, we are in the luxury business." The price of Rolex watches has increased 5x over inflation since the 1950s, for much the same models. Rolex was at…

I was looking for this comment as it's the first thing I thought.

Advertisers know we block ads, so the content is becoming the ad.

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#36
post #19

Somehow, this seems too much like a Rolex ad. Bloomberg: "Rolex Prices to Drop Further as Supply Surges: Morgan Stanley. Pre-owned watch market flooded with Rolex, Patek and AP"[1] Rolex is a strange business. One of their CEOs once said "we are not in the watch business, we are in the luxury business." The price of Rolex watches has increased 5x over inflation since the 1950s, for much the same models. Rolex was at…

If it is, then it's some strange reverse psychology going on. Because he's saying the Rolex was not a good heirloom.

It's a lot more suspicious that you say the Casio G-Shock is the choice of US soldiers.

I thought it was a good article, and the good point it made is that things without commercial value make better heirlooms.

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#39

Love those watches. These days you’ll hear people refer to an object as an heirloom, like an heirloom couch, which is typically an expensive object that has potential to be an actual heirloom. By definition, for an object to be an heirloom it has to be passed down through generations, but I like the use of it to refer to an object’s quality, which correlates to its potential to be passed down. Only then, when you tal…

Unless watches are a hobby for you or something, I don't think that's a good idea. In fact it's the point of the article that it's better if it's something less valuable, but meaningful to you (and hopefully reasonably maintainable/durable).

Some relatives apparently gave my father a silver spoon, with great ceremony and seriousness, because he was the last carrier of our last name. It was not a very pretty spoon, and it was more than a little odd, since I've since done some genealogy research and found out that we have plenty of relatives with that last name (admittedly they mostly converged on a slightly different spelling, our common ancestor living before that sort of thing was standardized).

There are so many things I would have more loved to have from those ancestors than a spoon.

From another ancestor, we have a chest, an "America suitcase". This ancestor, my great-great grandmother, was supposed to go to America with her parents, but they changed their mind at the last moment and went to Northern Norway instead. It's dented and worn, and it probably wasn't a very nice chest in the first place, since they were poor. But I think it's a much better heirloom - it is something signifying a very important crossroads in my family's history, and it even documents it to some degree (there's a year and initials painted on it).

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#40
post #35
post #19

Somehow, this seems too much like a Rolex ad. Bloomberg: "Rolex Prices to Drop Further as Supply Surges: Morgan Stanley. Pre-owned watch market flooded with Rolex, Patek and AP"[1] Rolex is a strange business. One of their CEOs once said "we are not in the watch business, we are in the luxury business." The price of Rolex watches has increased 5x over inflation since the 1950s, for much the same models. Rolex was at…

I was looking for this comment as it's the first thing I thought. Advertisers know we block ads, so the content is becoming the ad.

I mean if you're cynical enough, anything talked about that has monetary value is an ad. Anything that isn't monetary is propaganda.

It's one reason why I went off FB though; there was the ads, but then most posts of the people I followed were talking about a product, a (streaming) TV show, or an experience like vacation or food, all of which can be considered advertising or trying to sell me something. But it flies under the radar because it's from friends, whose opinions I'm more likely to follow than ads.

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