assignment four. "remember that life's most treausred moments often come with no warning".

what object do people treasure the most and why?

People enjoy objects for many different reasons, the most common not being the price value of the object but what someone had to do to achieve it. Work hard and save lots of money or maybe someone has looked after it for years or was given it by a now dead relative. Memories are very powerful and people associate odd things things with different memories.
Music is very nostalgic and I have a special song that always makes me think of them no matter where I am for each of my very close friends and family.

Radio 4 asked their listeners to answer the question: What is YOUR most treasured object - and what does it have to say about the 20th century?

1.Cigarette case - "My grandfather's cigarette case, engraved with his initials, was among the belongings sent back to my grandmother after he was killed in the trenches in 1917"

2.Dance card - "My most treasured object is a dance card, belonging to my mum, Ethel, from a dance she went to in 1924 at the local church institute. She was a lady's maid at a stately home called Mackerye End House in Hertfordshire. My father, Jack, worked there, too, as an electrician, and his name is written against several dances.But it's always tickled me that Mum saved the last dance for another chap called Ted."

3.Camera - "Andy Kohn, 62, works as a photographer and is also assistant principal of Killester College of Further Education in Dublin, where he lives with his wife Caroline, 46. When my Czech father, Sigmund Kohn, fled the Nazis just before the war, this camera was one of the few possessions he managed to bring with him."

The facebook group: What things remind you of your grandma's house?
1. "Olivia Newton John records, banana cream pie, double solitaire, and yarrow."
2. "glass insulators, puffed rice, old furniture, a huge ceramic bull, a porch swing, raspberries, lots of beads and crocheting things, humming birds..."
3 "It depends on the grandma...my great-grandmother's house reminds me of old pillows made from tassels and corduroy pleats and buttons. My paternal grandmother's house was paperd0lls and barbies and my mother's mother's house reminds me of pecan pie, hot tea and canning."

Food is another way people seem to remember things with a strong fondness. I have a friend who can not ever remember what the weather was like last time I saw her or what we were both wearing but she can always remember what we ate. "Oh that time, when we had beans on toast for lunch and then lollys in the park". I have known her for over ten years and that is still how she relates all her childhood memories, through food.

To find people to be interviewed I decided I would be brave and ask people off the streets. This would ensure I did not ask anyone what knew me and to keep results random. I kept the interview unstructured, so that they could lead the conversation and I could just prompt them when I wanted a more specified answer.

First I spoke to Minnie a twenty three year old who has moved form her home town in north England to study geography. I asked her the question and watched as the cogs in her brain rummaged through her possessions.
A teddy bear called Rupert.
I asked her why.
Rupert was given to her by her boyfriend on their one year anniversairy. He still lived in England and this teddy bear kept her warm at night. Rupert was blue and fluffy and to Minnie and no one else reminded her of the family, friends and boyfriend who she dearly missed from home. Rupert was not an embarassment and stayed firmly on the left pillow of her bed even if she has friends around. Rupert will never be given away or hand down or given away because he was not just a teddy he represented a whole life that was Minnies.
What I found interesting is that Rupert would only hold all these memories whilst everything in her relationships was good. I asked what would happen if she broke up with her boyfriend, if Minnie was discarded so would Rupert be. Probably in a violent way such as beheading or burnt. Most likely both. But if Minnie was the one to stop the relationship, Rupert would stay as he still wold hold all those fond memories of home.

Next was Elliot. An adventure enthusiast. When I asked him, he did not hesitate.
Car. Audi A3 Hatchback. 1.6
The answer was simple. Elliot had worked very hard, full time in a restaurant with an extra weekend manual labour job to earn enough money to buy one. I looked them up, they are nearly £20,000. I noticed the difference between the sexes. Minnie's was all about emotions and connections. Elliot's was his pride and joy. His shining achievement to all those hours spent serving food.

 nuff said.