Tiny Silver Spoons & Keychains: Things I Can Barely Remember Collecting

Some people call it hoarding. I call it collecting. 

I've been doing it my entire life. 

The first thing I remember collecting was tiny silver spoons. My dad travelled a lot for work and when he came back from a trip, he'd have a lil spoon from whatever city or state he visited. 

I never did anything with them. They were decorative so they just stayed in a drawer. 

Wish I still had them, though. I love eating with tiny spoons nowadays. 

After my dad ran into too many repeat spoons he was on a mission to figure out something else unique to bring back to me. 

He landed on keychains and one of my first obsessions was born. This was around the time I was in middle school and it hit exactly right for my brain. 

Y'all I had so many. They were all attached to each other in one big keychain ball except for whatever was my favorite on any given day. Those stayed attached to whatever bag I was carrying to school. 

I lost a lot of keychains that way. My school bags were stuffed to the brim at all times, but that's a story about my brain for another day. 

My dad brought back a keychain from every single business trip he ever took until the day he died. Aside from the ones he'd take me on so that I could ride rollercoasters while he worked. Those I got to choose my own. 

This is one of the things that sucks most about aphantasia for me. I cannot recall anything about them. I can't picture them or tell you what my favorites were. 

I remember the sound they made when they were all in a big ball, and I THINK, but don't quote me on it, there was a koosh ball one, cause I've always been way into koosh balls. 

And I know some of them were electronic and made noise or sparkly lights. I remember he loved the ones with moving parts most. 

I also remember how happy it made me to get another one. I can recall the the feeling no problem, but I can't recall the mirrored joy on my dad's face as he gifted them to me. 

Hell, I can't remember his face at all unless I am looking directly at a photograph. But, if I ran into him on the street, I'd recognize him immediately. Aphantasia is weird that way. 

Oh, and I don't have the keychains anymore because my smart ass decided to pack my collections together when we moved to Florida after my dad passed away.

My other collection at the time was Coca Cola bottles. 

Full ones. 

And that's the only reason I remember there were keychains with electronics... cause I remember how sad I was when they got ruined. 

p.s. When I was looking for a picture for this blog, I saw a rabbit's foot keychain and remembered my dad 100% got me a purple rabbit's foot keychain when we visited the Yellow River Game Ranch. Hey, I'll take the memories where I can get them!