This is...my most treasured childhood possession.

"My most treasured childhood possession" is the theme for this weeks "THIS IS'. A big thank you to Danielle whose blog is Teacups on Treetops for this great subject choice. Danielle said " it could be anything (object, memory, person) that you have held near and dear as you were growing up". It was hard for me to choose just one thing so I am going to pick one each of the three.

MY MOST TREASURED CHILDHOOD POSSESSION: OBJECT

My family was very poor when I was growing up. There were six boys and two girls in the family. We kids earned extra spending money by doing chores and odd jobs for the neighbours and often spent Saturdays walking the ditches between our village and others looking for "pop" bottles. We would take them home, wash them and then return them to the store where we got a two cents a bottle. This extra money would be added to our weekly allowance ( we got a quarter a week and we worked darn hard for it) so we could buy extra treats. If you saved a months allowance, you could get into town by bus, buy a movie ticket, a glass of pop and a small box of pop-corn. If you were lucky and had extra money you could buy a chocolate or nougat bar too. Money was hard to come by and you learned, at an early age, to spend it wisely. I tell you this so you can understand the importance of my most treasured childhood possession object . It is the metal turtle shown in the picture below. It is a incense burner that my brother Conrad gave me when I was between twelve and fourteen. I don't remember my exact age. The turtle had a lid that had slits in it, like a grill, to allow the incense to seep out. It is about 3 1/2 inches from tip of tail to nose and without the lid on is 1 1/2" high. (The lid was lost a few years ago.) For Conrad to have spent money on it or to have traded something he owned, to get this for me, was really something. It is one of the few physical things and the most treasured childhood possession that I have.

MY MOST TREASURED CHILDHOOD POSSESSION: MEMORY

My most treasured childhood "memory" is of my whole family going out on fishing trips on Sundays. Mom and dad would pile all of us in the car, along with a picnic lunch they had packed up: loaves of bread, peanut butter, lunch meat, homemade jam, a tub of margarine, a jar of mustard, tomatoes, a package or two of ginger snap cookies, apples, a thermos of coffee, and a big container of "freshie" and off we would go. Dad knew of every stream, pond and lake in the area, near and far. We often went to Conservation areas/parks for the day. Sometimes dad would stop at a farm house and ask the owner if we could use the stream on the property. Even after seeing all of us kids sitting in the car, it was rare that permission wasn't given. Out of the car we would all tumble. Us older kids would go looking for tadpoles, frogs or whatever, while dad tromped off with my oldest brother to find a semi-quiet area to fish and mom laid out the blankets and sat and read while still keeping a close watch on the babies and toddlers. Soon enough we would all get hungry and devour everything mom had packed to eat. Then most of us would fall asleep, dad included, on the blankets for a half hour or so. Once we were all awake, Dad would fish with the older boys for a bit longer and then off home we would go to the roast beef supper that mom had put into the oven before we had left for the day.

MY MOST TREASURED CHILDHOOD POSSESSION: PERSON

My most treasured childhood "person" is my Grams. She was the best part of my growing up years. She lived at the beach and I spent most of my summers with her. I can't remember any of my childhood without my Grams being in it. She was one very special lady. I was lucky enough that she was able to see and hold both of my children before she died. I miss her still, after all these years. I don't have very many good clear pictures of her. I remember the day this one was taken. It was at my Uncle Shawn's wedding. Directly behind Grams, the man with the dark glasses, not the white hat or white hair guy, is my dad.