I have had it since I was 15. It has held very little alcohol over the years, but it has seen a great deal of my life, a decade of loyal service, thats as much time with me as some of my best friends. It has seen the darkest aspects of my life, and it has seen some of the brightest most happy memories.
It's been across this country with me four times. On a trip with my Mother and Father to the Grand Canyon, on a trip with just my father it went to Mexico with us. On a trip to California with Stevie, and on a sole motorcycle journey across the United States in my pocket.
On many occasions it carried just water. To some parties that I have attended from simple college parties to seedy parties that were hosted by people I used to work for it contained water mixed with powerful ground up pain killers. It has been to many a theater production and was even left in a bin with a curious looking cop at a courthouse when I went to jury duty before I turned 21. I assured him it was just water - which wasn't the case (I'd forgotten it was in my pocket) - and he was very nice and dropped the matter.
The flask is stainless steel, 8oz, it is scratched, dented in places. I recently out of boredom taped it with a tar based roofing patch and then three days later spent four agonizing hours trying to peel the shit off - which is why it has a rubbery tar like coating in places - which might wear off eventually.
These are two of my pocket watches:
I have quite a few actually. My prize watches are really quite old, I even have a key wind Elgin. I have my Great Grandfather's Railroad watch. I have some prize watches that are really quite beautiful in Gold and Silver, I have a watch that was presented to my Great Great Grandfather on my mother's side by his parents when he turned 18 - it has a picture of him in it from when he was a mere baby. That is the watch of a man who owned Steel Mills back when this country really was one of Industry.
These two watches are new and battered. The one on top I carried all through high school, it was made in Russia, cost $50 in 1998, and keeps almost perfect time. I actually carried it through several years of college, and even now still carry it, it is in the suit I wore to my Uncle's funeral a few days ago.
The watch on the bottom I got while I was out in Phoenix because the one I rode cross country with did Not survive the trip. This is another 18 jewel watch - like the Russian version, but with a watch movement in it. Also mechanical, also keeps perfect time, with a french name it was made in China. It cost a little more that $50, it cost $100 to be exact - that includes the inscription on the back which on top reads "John A Greenman" and on the bottom "1984 - " which is my sense of humor and my intent to keep it as a using watch until I am either old and grey or in the ground when I am 30. Who knows?
The point is that we - some of us - build relationships with objects. Someone has a favorite jacket. Other's have a car which they dote on. Many of us have objects that mean something to us, either because they were given to us by someone we love, or because they have ridden through so many years of service.
Objects are Very important to me.
You will find that I have a story for just about everything I own, the cheaper things don't last, and the things that do last become a part of you.
The Vanson leather jacket my father bought for me so I'd be safe on the bike, which I wore to his funeral and rode cross country wearing.
The Norton Atlas headlight that sits on my bed which saw dad through 10 years of night roads with a lens in it that he got at a 24 hour race he was part of.
These headphones next to me I have had them since they I was 12 - a christmas present - they are the same as you see the Americans wearing on the sub in "Hunt for Red October"
There is a putter Beer Mug next to me with the initials of K.F.P. That stands for Katherine FitzSimmons Peffer - my Grandmother. She and her husband got a match set when they were married. Incidentally these mugs were made by Abercrombie & Fitch (made in London) before the company lost sight of what it was and became a company selling clothes to Teens - something which pisses me off a bit because its harder to tell who's gay now because all the straight boys dress in A&F and look queer. Humph.
I have a wool Jacket at the foot of the bed made by Filson, got it for Christmas some years ago, it's been through a TON.
This bed I am in was my parent's. They broke it while making love when my uncle was visiting when I was a little kid. Then when my brother and his wife broke it and I had to fix it I found Dad's fix and was both proud and mortified. I'm sure they'd ALL be mortified if they knew I'd just written that. It's apparently a family tradition to break this bed while making love - something I'll have to live up to, yet I fixed it with aluminum bracing so I'll have to work harder at it.
I have a letter that my father wrote me when I was 17. It's just words on a page, paper, inanimate, and yet it is probably worth more to me than anything else in this world:
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