I spent the better part of two hours today looking for a couple car books. They were books that I’ve had for years that described in detail and photos American cars from the mid-50s and early 60s by year. I’d been thinking about giving them to one of my car bud’s that might enjoy them. Most all my regular car bud’s are into British cars! For the life of me I cannot find them. Best guess, I already gave them away but I do not recall doing it.

That got me thinking about things I’ve lost that have never turned up.

The car key to my prior MG is one of them. I know I had the key. I had to. That’s how I drove it home. Best guess, I lost the key between an unattached garage and the house. It had a key fob on it and I never saw it or the key again.

Another item comes to mind. When my mother was moving from PA to MI to live near me, we came across the yellow Western Union messages that her brother had sent home before he died in WWII at St. Lo, France. I thought of them as a treasure to the past. Somehow, they never made it to MI. My mother swore I took them.

Do you have any lost and never found stories to share?

 

My eyeglasses, car keys, sunglasses, etc. Ah, the joy of getting old.

 

I had a 2008 RAV4, in my one and only Toyota foray. I could not find the key fob for it. My then-boyfriend had driven it so I was determined he had taken it. I was getting ready to sell the RAV4 after I bought my 2011 Crosstour, and had learned the crazy price it would cost to make a key in order for me to sell the car with all the keys it came with. At the last minute, the key showed up in my camera bag that I had searched before. I was convinced the boyfriend had finally put it in there and he thought I was nuts for suspecting him. It was the final straw that led to our breakup. I still don't know the truth but I was glad to not have to pay for a new remote entry key. He was getting weird anyway, so the trust issue was already a problem.

 

I had a set of 1/8 scale men's suit and pants patterns that my father made when he was a student at the Central Needle Trades high school. I used them during my clothing apprenticeship along with the books that he had used and his pattern making tools. I have all of the books, tools and clothing shears that he used and all of the equipment that I bought when I was learning the trade, but for the life of me, I cannot find the 1/8 scale patterns that he made. His clothing books and tools are among my most prized possessions.

I also had a World War II map of Europe that was given to my father and all other members of the Army Air Force during the war in case they were somehow shot down or lost in Europe. I wanted to donate it to a local museum that was doing an exhibit on World War II. Years ago I put it away somewhere safe, so safe in fact that I can't find it.

I also had a printout of an article from the magazine "Foreign Affairs" titled "Trading American Interests". It's a great article about how we lost some of our manufacturing to the Asian countries after World War II until now. I used this article for an economics paper when I was working on my MBA. I printed out a few copies of it which I put in my bookshelf. Now I can't find them. I can go online and buy the article again, but it bothers me to know that I have them somewhere here but I don't know where they are. If I find the copies that I have, I'm going to scan them and keep the pdf on my computer.

I'm sure that there is a multitude of other things that I've misplaced over the years that I can't find, but these are the things that stick out in my mind.

 

When I was in my mid teens I dropped the nozzle for hand held hair blower in my bedroom.
I immediately looked for it but it was simply gone. I never found it.
This wasn't a tiny eyeglss screw this thing roughly 3x3x3 inches.
but poof gone. it was like it fell into a black hole and that was it.

 

Back in my car buying and selling days, I always looked forward to the careful cleaning and examination of the contents of a new acquisition and the boxes that usually came with it. Invariably I would find some unanticipated treasure. In one car I found a Boker Tree Knife. Boker Tree makes interesting limited run folding knives for outdoorsmen. This particular knife had a bone handle and the blade had an odd looking notch at the tip. I thought it was some sort of break, but a friend who was something of an expert smoothly ran the closed knife across the heel of his shoe and presto, the knife was open! The blade was made with a notch that would catch on your shoe heel and open up. So the person who was holding something could open the knife with one hand (and a foot). I don't know where I put it. I have not seen it in years.

I do still have a Barlow Horn knife that I found in my Austin Healey, but I wish I could find that Boker. Here is a picture of the modern Chinese version.

https://www.knifecountryusa.com/stor...SABEgJdo_D_BwE

And here is a picture of the Barlow. Mine is well used and the blade is worn.

https://www.opticsplanet.com/german-...ampaign=google

I just related this story to my wife and she thought I should mention my hair...

 

 

When I bought my current S2000 while cleaning the trunk I found a compact flash card with a bunch of pictures on it. I was able to find the city and baseball league the kids were on but nobody seems to know the people in the pictures. Bummer!

I still have the card and hope someday to get it to its previous owner.

 

I'm pretty good about not losing things like car keys, house keys, stuff in general.

I remember packing for a vacation and I'm SURE I put a Timex watch in the bag I was packing with some costume jewelry. I didn't have a really expensive watch (not my thing) but I wanted a less expensive one to wear at the beach. Never saw that watch again. Also lost a nice little bracelet Rick bought me with some diamonds and rubies on it. It was insured, (not that it was worth a ton of money, but insurance on jewelry was cheap)., I still look for that bracelet when moving stuff around in the bedroom.

Bill, LOL on the hair that has been lost....

 

Maybe the person was stalking the kids
Levi