Is it just ME, or is it a sign of the times

[shalanna]

For some reason, since my Muses fell silent (they've started to stir again--I'm going to work on either the Ari sequel or the Pundit book this weekend, between doing my knee exercises *ouch* 10x a day), I have felt like surfing eBay for interesting stuff that I shouldn't buy because we can't really afford to waste money. Still, I've had a bit of fun, and have a question or two for y'all.

Is it just ME, or . . . isn't it really saddening and depressing to find all these vintage charm bracelets up for sale that have in the description, "I inherited this from my aunt/grandma/mom a few years ago," or even, "Charm of boy's head engraved with name and date," or "Charm with three kids' figures and 'Grandma' engraved"? I mean . . . this is stuff that these people should keep and treasure and pass along to the next generation. But some people see only a dollar sign in anything. My cousin's kids are like that--when they come to your house, they stride in and suddenly point at something in your house and shout, "Wow! That would bring $$$ on eBay!" Or, "Can I have this? I know just where I could sell it!" Philistines.

Sure, there are people who need to sell jewelry because they've fallen on hard times. This is probably a SMALL fraction of these hawkers, though. Most of 'em are just selling 'cause they think "money is more valuable" or they just aren't materialistic and/or sentimental. Okay, fine. However, I still feel a twinge for the mom or grandma who presented this item and hoped it would be passed down through the generations.

Yeah . . . sappy. I never bid on any bracelet with charms on it like these, though. Just too depressing for me. And I'm already a melancholic. A couple of years ago I did bid on and win a bracelet with such charms (because it had an old-fashioned phone and airplane that I thought were cute), and when I got it, such a feeling of sadness ran through me as I picked it up and "felt" the missed potential to the grandchild or whoever who could be told, "This was your great-grandmother's . . . it comes from WWII . . . see the airplane? This is how prop planes used to look. And this is how phones used to look in Grandma's day. She saw a flag flying with 45 stars and a milk wagon pulled by horses and an iceman who came daily bringing a huge chunk of ice in his tongs and plopped it into their wooden icebox. . . ."

*sigh* Yeah, whatever. I was physically unable to have children, so I guess this kind of experience might be overrated, as it's mostly in my memory from overhearing people say it to their children (who were trying to get to the Nintendo anyhow). I've always been sentimental and a keepsake-keeper.

I suppose the charm bracelet fad is kind of over. I'm going to make a charm necklace out of the ones I've picked up here and there, because I hate clanging bracelets against the keyboard. I've seen charm necklaces in the catalogs for fall, so perhaps for once I won't be completely out of style.

Here are a few of the bracelets I *ahem* DID win.

"Apollo" NASA charm bracelet . . . because my dad worked at NASA during the Apollo program. I think THIS one is cool. Note the LEM charm!

Snowman and Princess Phone charms sold me on this one. Those are the only two that aren't sterling, but oh well.

And I LOVE this little fish with a pearl! I have him/her on a necklace chain.

Hubby says I should've saved the money so we could go to the beach sometime this fall "when you get well." Since the therapist seems to think I am hopeless and can't get well, and things are moving very slowly, I see this as one of those "We'll see" answers from Dad, and am not taking it seriously.

I also got a couple of art rubber stamps. Made my aunt and uncle their birthday cards earlier this week using the stamps ("House Mouse" blowing out the candles). Reminded me what a mess it makes to do crafts, and how ephemeral the results.

But then all is ephemeral, ain't it? All is vanity, saith the preacher. Time and chance happeneth to them all.

The best you can hope to do is *DUCK*.

*quacking up*

Comments

[annamossity.livejournal.com]

That bracelet is really cool. :)

My father worked for Rockwell International back in the 80s. That's almost as good as working for NASA. He knew how things worked at NASA with the flight plans and all that jazz.

Anyway, yeah. Nifty bracelet. :D

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

Isn't it neat? Only a nerd-girl would want one, of course. *GRIN*

I'll bet they were sold at the Space Camp gift shop or somewhere like that on the Space Coast. You see such odd things come up on eBay.

I worked at Rockwell (Defense Electronics Operations) from June 1981 to January 1983 . . . the Richardson plant at Shiloh and Renner. It was way out in the country when I worked there. My friend Myra and I used to take a walk at lunchtime, and we'd walk out through a briar patch/weed field over to somebody's horse ranch and follow the creek. Now that has been developed into a housing development called Somebody's Farm. (sigh) I drive by occasionally and marvel at the way it has gotten built up. What I worked on there, though, wasn't the space program, but a kitlist program for building the plane they had a big contract for at the time. My software printed (on an old line printer, "watermelon paper"!) a list of the parts they were supposed to box up off the line in order to make some piece of the B-1B or whatever it was. The database was in California and the assembly line was somewhere else. This was all done on an IBM mainframe. Yaagh! I left in 1983 to do really ADVANCED programming at E-Systems Garland . . . in FORTRAN '66.

I think that NASA's mission has gotten all scrambled over the past few years. And the shuttles are simply getting too old to fly--they keep having parts fall off. They made my dad stop driving his 1964 Dodge Dart when the chrome kept falling off! I don't know what the new mission should be, but I no longer believe that we need to spend a lot of money going to the stars. I see a LOT of urgent need here on our home planet. This probably means I am getting really . . . old.

What's your eBay search string? (If you shop it at all. If not, I salute your strength of character!)

[annamossity.livejournal.com]

I never shop on ebay. I like to browse there, but I have no credit card and I am a bit iffy about opening a paypal account. I also don't have enough money for buying some of the things I see on ebay (I have a love for Labradorite jewelry).

My father worked at the Downey, CA branch of Rockwell. I have pictures of him dressed up in the white suits they wore when going near space stuff (or whatever they were doing). I think he helped design space ships. And he did some work with Ray Bradbury (I have pictures of them together). Apparently, Ray Bradbury was very interested in the space program. My father has told me a few interesting stories about him.

[fastfwd.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you're talking about.

Through hard experience, I have learned that you never give kids this sort of item until they most definitely aren't kids any more. You can't appreciate the passing of time at 20 in the same way you can appreciate it at 40. Or 50. Or more so.

My son is 22. I have stuff packed away that he's not going to lay eyes on until he's at least 35, because he won't have the capacity to appreciate it until then. So I'm saving things for that time when he has both a sense of history and a sense of the future. But until he does, I'm letting him be.

You can't put an old head on young shoulers--and you should never, ever try.

[madkestrel.livejournal.com]

...when they come to your house, they stride in and suddenly point at something in your house and shout, "Wow! That would bring $$$ on eBay!" Or, "Can I have this? I know just where I could sell it!" Philistines.

Yep, I get it. My mother's oldest brother was a Marine Corps pilot, and he was killed when she was about sixteen. Obviously I never met him, but I heard stories about him all my life, and when my mother was cleaning out some old trunks a while back, she gave me Uncle Ernest's flight cap as a keepsake. I put it in my china cabinet. One afternoon, a friend was over, and he noticed it. He started fussing that it would bring $60 or $70 on eBay. I explained that it had belonged to my uncle and would never leave the family. He told me I was crazy.

Yeah, I think we know who's the crazy one here. :)

[imafarmgirl.livejournal.com]

I agree. It's totally disrespectful of the elderly and dead. People don't know respect anymore.

[pameladean]

The NASA bracelet is tres cool. And I think your therapist needs an attitude adjustment.

P.

[coneycat.livejournal.com]

That little fish charm is adorable. I love looking for things like that so I can imagine a story character wearing it. I usually never manage to work the item into a description of the character but I know she's wearing it!

Don't be too hard on young people "today." Young people are young and always have been, and youth is a self-curing condition. Most of the kids I know are all right. And Lord knows I've been in the position of looking around a small apartment full of random stuff and thinking, "I have just got to get rid of most of this."

Also--I hope things improve as far as your knee and your therapist's attitude are concerned. I'm much more worried about that than about lack of sentiment in young people. I hope things start to come together there and it helps you get back to writing, too.