Despite what many would believe because of my outspoken and comedic ways, I’m very much a sentimental person.

Most of the stuff in my home is there because it belonged to someone else before it did me.

Don’t get me wrong, I like going shopping and having fun sorting through Wal-Mart’s sales and the new stuff that has just come in at Best Buy. Still, the things that matter to me mostly come from other people and they are very much an important part of my life.

There are so many things that I call prized possessions that I wouldn’t even begin to know where to start. Some of them come from friends and some from family and they all are a part of my life in some special way.

I have two figurines that were on my grandmother and grandfather’s – Sidney and Wanda Scott – mantle in their home ever since I can remember. The hand has long since been broken off of one of them, but that matters not to me.

Wherever I’ve lived since they have come into my possession, they have had a very central place in my home.

I also have their china cabinet, buffet and dining room table. They’ve been with me through every move I’ve made over the last several years and I wouldn’t want to be without them for any reason.

Also in my possession is a newspaper that my mother kept from the day after John F. Kennedy was assassinated. That newspaper has been with me since I became an adult. In many ways it was like a rite of passage to me.

Most of the dishes in my house came from either my mother’s kitchen or my grandmother’s. They have been special to them and that’s why I’ve wanted to keep them in use despite their old age.

Another thing I treasure is a bookcase my grandmother – Vivian White – had ever since I was a little boy. It has always been in her house and I’ve always thought it was one of the neatest things on earth.

Several years ago when she was still living at home, she wanted a smaller bookcase and told me I could have hers. Since it was the one thing I had always wanted upon her passing, I certainly accepted. Now that she’s gone it means even more to me.

I also have the coffee cup my father drank out of when I was a boy. I remember it because it was so different. I have the one my mother used as well.

I have a box that I keep a lot of my special trinkets in. I have some from the days when I was a student at Campbell University and others that I have collected over the years.

That box is something I treasure even if nothing in it is important to anyone else on the face of the earth. It contains things that I’ve been given that I treasure beyond belief. They are memories of the people that have passed through my life that I have known and loved. They are a part of me.

Several years ago I started assembling my collection of quotations into leather journals. I took time to write each one of them because that is the way I wanted them.

Several people asked me why I didn’t simply put them on a computer so they could be more easily manipulated, but that was never what I wanted.

The reason I wrote them is so my son could have the quotations I collect in a lifetime at his fingertips in my handwriting. If he’s even partially as sentimental as I am, it will be a special gift when I’m not here anymore.

I don’t know exactly why I wanted to share my sentimental side with you. Maybe it’s because some of you don’t have one. You need one. Your children and your children’s children will appreciate it.

Comments? Questions? Snide Remarks? All are welcome.

You can reach me at thadd.white@r-cnews.com or 332-7211.

Be careful out there.