Fond memories
My girlfriend's family house is, to my eyes, more than generously-sized. But that doesn't mean that every available surface and floor-space isn't crammed full of everything that could ever possibly come in handy, or have done at some point in an alternate timeline.

Inheritance being what it is, and my girlfriend's student digs being of rather stingy proportions for a dormouse, never mind the five occupants, her kitchen cupboards are approaching a physical proof of some culinary maximal-packing theorem. I was giving them a clean-out and re-organisation a few weeks back, when I came across a nice shiny new sieve.

"Finally! You got a new one!" I said approvingly to her. The old one, which had been about a bit, had been a corrugated mess of stiff metal mesh that took an age to clean, shredding to bits any sponge or scourer that made the brave sacrifice of attempting the job.

A little more digging about, and I pulled out... the old sieve.

"But why?", I asked. "Why on Earth would you keep this? It's so unusable that you had to get a new one!" I said as I waved both sieves about in juxtaposition.

"I... I've got fond memories of that sieve...."

Upon my presumably blank stare and uncertain silence, I was further informed that the sieve was a 'family heirloom'.
(rosyatrandom has no regrets apart from all those regrets, Fri 4 May 2012, 21:25, Reply)