Fun Monday

I'm participating in this week's "Fun Monday" bloggy thingamajig, hosted by Ari at Beyond My Slab. The theme is What is the oldest possession in your house or flat? Describe it or show us a picture. Where did it come from? Why do you hang on to it?

I decided to go with the thing owned by me for the longest time. I have a book that belonged to my mom's father, but I've only had it in my possession since college, and I'm sure somewhere in my house there are photos older than the one I have of myself playing the piano at 9 months old. Come to think of it, the piano may be the one of the oldest things in the house, but it's only officially been mine since this summer.

The oldest thing in the house owned by me is...well...it's one of these guys:


I planned to write the post about the bear, but then when I went up to take his picture, I saw the rabbit and remembered that I don't actually know which one came first. The bear's name is Pumpy, and I can't be certain, but I'm guessing his name was inspired by the "pumping" of his internal mechanism. He winds up and plays "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." I got Pumpy in my Christmas stocking when I was very small, either two or three years old, judging by the pictures I remember seeing of me that go with the photo of him peeking out of the top of my stocking, all sleek and new and decked out with a white ribbon around his neck. Pumpy had a very close call when I was in middle school. His music box hadn't worked in years. He was wound tight, but the key was stuck. My mom was cleaning up my room, saw him, and thought I might not notice if she threw him away. I definitely would have noticed, so it's a good thing that the next thing happened. She told me as she picked him up to drop him into the trash bag, he spontaneously started to play, and he's worked fine ever since.

The rabbit is Bun Bun, and I'm not sure when I got him. I know he was in a very early Easter basket, because that's what Mom told me, but I don't know if it was my first Easter basket, or my second, or my third. If it was my first, it would make Bun Bun the thing I've owned the longest, since I had my first Easter when I was about five weeks old, a week after my parents brought me home. Bun Bun doesn't have any near-death experiences to share, at least as far as I know. When I packed up the last of my stuffed animals and moved into our house, I brought Pumpy and Bun Bun over with me. I truly can't remember a time when I didn't have them, so it felt like the right thing to do. They sit on a shelf on the bookcase in our bedroom, along with the teddy bear my mom made for me when I was four, the teddy bear I gave MB the first year we were dating to keep him company when I wasn't around, and the stuffed turtle MB gave me on the day we'd been going out for four months. I suspect they'll stay on the shelf even after the baby is born. They're a bit old for a rambunctious kid, and besides, he'll have his own toys to grow up with and to one day recall as the things he's had for the longest time.