Interview one: Female, aged 19, student.
What is your most treasured belonging? – ‘My pillow’
Why do you treasure it? – ‘I like hugging it’
Where did you get it? – ‘in a cupboard in my parents house’
Do you have any other treasured items? – ‘Pongo, my toy dog, I’ve had him since I was small, maybe two or three. He was a birthday present from my friend Zack, he was lactos intolerant and used to have orange juice in his cereal.’
‘Some band t-shirt’s too, from gig’s that I have been to.’
‘I also have this little magnifying glass, I’m not sure where I got it, I think I found it somewhere, so it would be hard to replace.’
‘Probably some of my books too, some of them were quite expensive, I got a few in London, and one at a festival I go to every year.’
Do you have anything that has been passed down from a family member? – ‘A lot of my kitchen utensils, but thats kind of boring!’
Who passed them on to you? – ‘From my Granddad from the 1960’s. A lot of it is army allocated from when he was an officer.’
Besides the band t-shirts, do you have any saved mementos or souvenirs from trips or outings? – ‘I used to collect rocks from each place I went to, then write on them where I got them from. But I don’t do that anymore.’
‘I keep a lot of my tickets, from traveling and events, wristbands too.’
Have you got anything else you got as a child, other than ‘Pongo’? – ‘There is this plate I have in my parents house, with different sections for different foods, I’ve had it since I was about 18 months old and I got it in Canada.’
What was the best present you ever received? – ‘Probably my radio, it has a built in iPod dock and It’s a CD player. I use it every day.’
Interview two: Male, aged 16, school pupil.
What is your most treasured belonging? – ‘My copy of pokémon silver, for gameboy.’
Why do you treasure it? – ‘It’s a really good game, unfortunately it doesn’t save anymore.‘
Where did you get it? – ‘Em….Oh! I know exactly! I got it on amazon. It was pre-owned and had ‘Vicky. C’ written along the bottom.’
Do you have any other treasured items? – ‘My favourite T-shirt, it’s grey and has a red heart in the center, I wish I was wearing it just now actually. I wear it every chance I can get.’
‘I got it from a play I was in called ‘love bites‘ I played a character who was in love with a girl on a bench but they never spoke. I treasure it because I like the design of the T-shirt and also because it’s a nice reminder of the play.’
Do you have anything that has been passed down from a family member? – ‘An ink pot that belonged to my grandmother, I got it after she died, its kinda leather bound and inside theres a glass pot.’
Do you save mementos or souvenirs from trips or outings? – ‘Concert tickets, I think that’s all.’
Have you kept something from when you were a child? – ‘This has made me realise that I am still about 5, and still like all the same stuff. I still have a lot of my toys, a lot of star wars toys. I was really in to star wars, until I was about 12, well, I still am, really. I have a ridiculous amount of toys in my bedroom.’
What was the best present you ever received? – ‘The gift of life.’
Interview three: Female, aged 19, student.
What is your most treasured belonging? – ‘Pooh bear!’
Why do you treasure him? – ‘He always sleeps in my bed, he is good to cuddle and he is my best.’
Where did you get him? – ‘From someone when I was a baby, but I don’t know who.’
Do you have any other treasured items? – ‘I have a book called ‘when hitler stole pink rabbit’ which I got from my mum in primary 4. I used to read it every month when I was little and I am the only person who has ever read my copy.’
‘I have two Oliver Jeffers books which I got as presents too. They are special because I wanted them for a really long time before getting them and I really like his work.’
‘Also my wee sylvanian families which I got, mostly, from my parents and sister. Me and Paula (my sister) used to play with them all the time, take them on holiday and set them up to take photos.’
‘My anklet is another, at the end of secondary school my friends and I went to Zante and all got matching ones. I still have mine on, it jingles when I walk.’
Do you have anything that has been passed down from a family member? – ‘I have this ring, I got it from my great gran who died the day before I was three. My mum was worried about telling me because I was so young but my nursery teacher suggested a book called ‘badgers parting gifts‘ I don’t think I really understood the message though.’
‘The ring came in this little box, it was really cute.’
Do you save mementos or souvenirs from trips or outings? – ‘I save all the train tickets I’ve used. Or not used. I have a little book of tickets too, from concerts, museum’s the cinema and things like that. But not if it was a bad thing, like a film I didn’t enjoy.’
‘I collect pieces of sea glass too, I have so many jars of it. One time a man came into the shop I used to work in and suggested we put the marbles in jars on the window ledge to catch the light. I tried it with my sea glass to, it worked pretty well.’
‘Penny’s too, I have a lot of them in a jar, but thats not really a memento.’
Besides Pooh bear, have you kept something from when you were a child? – ‘Yeah, I have a box of things my little sister gave me for my 18th birthday, it was full of things she had found around the house from when we were little. We had this game of ‘happy families‘ cards and my favourite were the post men, so she took those out and put them in.’
‘We also had all these bouncy balls, enough to make a solar systems with stars and we used to set them all up and roll them around the ‘sun’.’
‘There was a book called ‘Wilf, the witches dog‘, which was my favourite.’
‘There was loads of things!’
‘A miniature doll of Anastasia, which I loved because I thought that ‘Anastasia‘ was about me, and I loved the russian revolution.‘
What was the best present you ever received? – ‘Probably when I got my iPod in s2. Like, it probably wasn’t the best actual present, but it terms of excitement it was the best. My dad had scratched my name on the back too, with a compass.’
‘Actually, that’s another thing I inherited, my dad’s compass from when he was at school.’
Interview four; female, aged 16, school pupil and sister of interviewee 3.
What is your most treasured belonging? – ‘My sylvanian families.’
Why do you treasure them? – ‘Because they were the one thing I was better than Anna for. I have 72 and Anna only has about 12.’
Where did you get them? – ‘ I got them as presents, but the first one I ever got was from my gran and it was the most exciting present ever.’
Do you have any other treasured items? – ‘My silky, it’s my mum’s cut up nighty. I really liked silky things when I was younger.’
‘One time I lost it in the supermarket and we had to send a shop assistant round looking for it.’
Do you have anything that has been passed down from a family member? – ‘I have my dad’s dressing gown. He tried to throw it out when he got a new one but it smelled like him so I kept it.’
Do you save mementos or souvenirs from trips or outings? – ‘I used to save bus tickets, but I don’t really save anything anymore.’
Have you kept something from when you were a child? – ‘Yeah, I’ve kept all my old drawing, and my stories.’
What was the best present you ever received? – ‘My guitar, because it was a surprise present, I wasn’t expecting it.’
Interview five: male, aged 20, sales advisor in river island.
What is your most treasured belonging? – ‘Benny bunny, he’s the stuffed toy I had when I was born.’
Why do you treasure him? – ‘Because I have had him all my life.’
Where did you get him? – ‘He was a gift, I got him in the hospital.’
Do you have any other treasured items? – ‘I have this pokémon card, I carry it with me everywhere I go, it’s in my wallet. It’s japanese and it was a present from my friend Craig.’
‘It makes me extra careful not to loose my wallet, as I’d be sad if I lost it.’
Do you have anything that has been passed down from a family member? – ‘Well my older brother get’s things handed down, like he has all my dads old clothes.’
‘My granny gave me a casserole dish. But it broke. I only had it about a month.’
Do you save mementos or souvenirs from trips or outings? – ‘I saved lot’s of metro, bus and train tickets from when I went interailing with my boyfriend last summer’
Have you kept something from when you were a child? – ‘Apart from benny, I had a lot of soft toys but I gave them to my little brother, he’s 7. I have bits of lego, and a bat mobile toy.’
‘I think I still have my blanket, it was a red blanket. Maybe it’s in a cupboard somewhere.’
What was the best present you ever received? – ‘My mum bought me bookbinding classes, that was a gift that kept giving.’
Interview six: Male, aged 18, student.
What is your most treasured object? – ‘A small wooden box with koalas, kangaroos and aboriginal designs burned into it. It’s full of pins and a picture of my cousin when he was a baby.’
Why do you treasure it? – ‘Because it’s linked to both sides of my family, and I don’t get to see a lot of my family that often. My mum is one of six, so my extended family is quite big.’
Where did you get it? – ‘I took it when I left home.’
Is the cousin in the picture on your mums side? – ‘Yeah, he is my mum’s sister’s.’
Do you have any other treasured items? – ‘Yeah, I’ve got quite a few. Definitely my camera, It’s not the same camera I got when I first became a photographer but it’s the same brand. I worked to get it, and it took a while, so it’s a symbol of that hard work.’
Do you have anything that has been passed down from a family member? – ‘Yeah, the bed covers I’ve got. I got them from my parents, they are the ones I have always like, since I was a kid.’
Do you save mementos or souvenirs from trips or outings? – ‘Yeah, I do. Tickets, clipping, photographs, just things I find. They all go together usually, in a big purple folder.’
Have you kept something from when you were a child? – ‘My little beanie baby tiger called zampan, I’ve had him since I was two. I still have him in my room and he’s still got all his beans. The funny thing is he’s yellow, he was never orange. Yellow tiger.’
What was the best present you ever received ? – ‘Just the little things I got when I was moving to uni. I don’t remember exactly, just miscellaneous things. Rights of passage.’
‘One of my school friend gave me a collage of photo’s as well.’
Marigold 