Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Warrior Poet" data-source="post: 2769323" data-attributes="member: 1057">A Wooden Sword, hand shaped by whittling, from my grandfather, who knew how much I loved history and science fiction/fantasy.  He whittled a roman legion sword for me, crude, when I was five.  Now that he's gone, I'll always have that sword.  Damnit, I'm tearing up now thinking about it.Books and the Gift of Literacy, from my parents.  This is one of the most powerful and wonderful things they ever gave me.An Old Pipe that belonged to my grandfather, the same one that whittled the sword.  I don't smoke, but I treasure that pipe, teeth marks and old tobacco stains and all.$750 Airline Ticket, from myself.  Money I spent to fly to a small Texas town and visit my grandmother in the hospital, one last time, one day before she died.  It was unexpected only because I got a call from my mother saying, "Nana's dying," and had to buy the ticket that night.  Got to tell Nana I love her one last time.  Best money I ever spent.  Alien Fighting Corporal Hicks, from Dingleberry on these boards.  I love the movie Aliens better than any other action movie ever.  Dingleberry is in my gaming group, and one year, for my birthday, he gave me this action figure set.  It's even mis-labeled by the toy company, as the armor the marine is wearing is clearly Hudson's (checks geek cred:  yep, still good).  We were rolling dice that night, in fact.  At the time, one of our other gaming group members' girlfriend was there, and rolled her eyes that an adult would give another adult a toy.  There was an awkward pause, whereupon I, a person who is very shy about this sort of thing, turned to her and said, "You know, I don't go to your house on your birthday and make fun of the gifts you get."  I love those action figures, always will.  I'm still friends with that woman, but it needed to be said.Electric Bass Guitar and Practice Amp, with All Cables by members of my gaming group who were putting together a band and needed a bassist.  I've never played an instrument in my life (at the time, 29 years).  Now I'm their bassist.  I'm not good, but it's some of the most fun I've ever had, and it means even more that they wanted me to play, when they could have gotten a real musician (CDs are on sale at the back for $10  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ).Dragon-shaped Salt Cellar, from my mother.  It's porcelain, and beautiful.  I didn't even know what a salt cellar was, but my mother knew how much I love dragons.  Enough said.Bicycle Riding Lessons, from my father, who was the instructor.  Took me to the cinder track everytime I wanted to go, holding on to the bike seat and running along, holding me up, until one time I looked down and saw the shadow on the ground and realized my father wasn't holding on to the bicycle anymore, instead he was holding up his hands, and then I heard him cheering as I rode on my own, without training wheels.Recipe for Frijoles, from my grandmother.  This is the meal I always associate with her and her home.  The ones I make will never be as good as hers, and they're not supposed to be, and that's o.k.Warrior Poet</blockquote>

Verification