Do you still have old letters from your ex bfs/gfs/significant others ?

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

A couple of minutes ago I just saw a video to a song from Switchfoot " Meant To Live " and my memories immediately went back to my recent ex bf who is still stationed in Iraq - we broke up over the summer because we became different people ( what a blessing in disguise ) . Well anyways , I just took out the old letters he wrote me while were together and I just read them with a smile on my face to . Even though I am currently with another person now , I smile at these letters from a love past just because :sigh: good memories of a life full of emotions and growth .

Just curious if I was the only who still has old letters hidden in their closet . I can't bear to throw these away though - but I know I won't keep them forever ...

EDIT : I just remembered , its Veterans Day - my ex is a Veteran ... wow ... ok I must sleep and make sense in the morning .

[MissHoneychurch]

1. Oh yes, of course

love letters, emails, pictures ... still have everything. One ex wanted me to throw them away. I couldn't and more important didn't want to do it. It is my past, it is who I am now. It isn't like I am going to get back together with them.

I read some of them again once in a while, depending on my mood. The emails from my last ex I can't read yet. I would get too pissed.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

24. Wie geht's dir MissHoneychurch ?

Ich hoffe dass alles ist gut bei dir :) :hi:

[Radio_Lady]

34. I have letters from my ex- for my children to know he once loved me.

Also, letters from my husband to his first wife, for my stepchildren someday.

I don't know if either bundle will ever be read, but I've decided to keep them and let my heirs decide what to do with them.

Guess that makes me an incurable romantic!

On edit: Just remembered -- I have a beautiful pearl necklace given to me by one of my ex-mother-in-laws in 1960. I don't wear it, but I have it.

[MissHoneychurch]

44. mir geht es gut

looks like I get back into the dating scene. Wish me luck :)

[Radio_Lady]

48. Good luck, MissHoneychurch! I'll think good thoughts for you.

What a sweet, kinda old-fashioned (but in a good way) screen name.

I found my husband through an ad in the Boston Globe in 1972. There were no personal ads at that time; he was a widower with three children looking for a housekeeper. I was divorced with two kids and working for a radio station six days a week. My day off was Sunday; and I just happened to glance at the Household Help Wanted section. I didn't need a job, and to this day, I have no idea why I answered that ad.

The rest is history -- I've been married to him 33 years next February.

Be creative in your search!

In peace,

Radio_Lady

[MissHoneychurch]

49. what a wonderful story

my screenname is the name of one of my favorite book character.

[Radio_Lady]

50. Is it "A Room With A View" by E. M. Forster?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0553213237/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-3484384-9886254#reader-link

[MissHoneychurch]

51. yep

:D

[drhilarius]

2. Oh yes...

couldn't lose those artifacts without losing some sense of who I was/am and where I came from.

[SeattleGirl]

3. I still have a voicemail tape with the last message I had from

a former lover, my "Grand Obsession", as it were. I put "finish" on it years ago, and have not listened to the tape since then, but can't bring myself to get rid of the tape.

Interesting creatures, aren't we?

[Radio_Lady]

36. I had one tape like that from a former lover -- it caused a big rupture

in my marriage when my husband heard it quite accidentally.

That was in 1987.

[NMMNG]

4. Not letters, but cards

Birthday and Christmas cards from many years past.

[Omphaloskepsis]

5. I have a shoebox full of them..

I can't get rid of them.

[hippywife]

6. I did have

a collection of cards,letters and photos that I collected for 20 years from my ex-boyfriend who I saw off and on thru that time. When I was cleaning out my house, getting ready to get married and move to another state, I took the whole lot and threw it away. I had turned my back on the past and was starting a new life with a man I loved very much and, more imporantly, I knew loved me very much. He had no place in it.

Morning everyone! :hi:

[REP]

7. No

I do have some art glass he gave me; if they weren't such nice pieces of glass (which I collect) I'd toss those too.

[Kathryn STone]

33. gawd I feel like a freak, my answer is no! rop

but like she said if it's something of true value but jesus all those letters etc. I mean when I move on I Mooooove on. Looking at ya'll's responses I feel like I am insensitive.
photos, clothing, they go.

[Radio_Lady]

38. Don't feel bad, Kathryn STone -- I just have a big storage area in

this house.

When we move to a smaller place (and we will as we get older), everything will be sorted and disgorged to the interested parties.

Did someone once say, "Things fill the spaces you have available for them?" Let's hear it for smaller apartments and other compact living spaces.

[Kathryn STone]

40. thanks for that nice reply I didn't want to "come out" but rop

I burned the photos and letters from the last big f***-up relationship, a guy I went and moved to Australia to be with. So I am hard core about Move On (dot org?)

[Radio_Lady]

41. Hey, it's OK to keep stuff -- or NOT -- your preferences!

I'm involved in consignment, re-sale, and donation of adult and children's clothing and toys. I also support several charities here. So, I'm always coming and going with items for here and there.

My husband is much more efficient and organized than I am, thank goodness. He's the financial and tax person in the house. I'm more of a "flibber-de-gibbet" (spelling) with lots of things hidden in closets and drawers. But everything looks neat and tidy, at least on the surface.

Hey, I compliment you for getting rid of the items from the guy who took you to Australia. What was that place like? We hope to make it to Ayers Rock someday.

Go for it -- move on any way you see fit, and more power to you! I hope you find a more permanent and supportive relationship with the next person. I've been married three times, divorced twice -- and now celebrating 33 years next Feb., 2006 with my "current" husband.

In peace,

Radio_Lady

[jmm]

8. No but I have boxes full of coats, clothes, and music

stored in my mom's basement belonging to one ex. I tried to return it all after we broke up but he refused. I think it was his way of trying to keep us connected. I haven't had any contact with him in a few years and most of it was expensive so I guess I should donate it all now.

I've ever intentionally throw something away because of a break up but I've moved a few times in the last five years and I've never felt the need to take mementos from past relationships with me.

[MrSandman]

9. I stilll have the quilt she made...

oh some 12-18 years ago.

[Radio_Lady]

42. Sometimes a little piece of our hearts remains with our previous loves.

At least, that's what I believe.

[MrSandman]

59. Snd we may never know when or where...nt

[VelmaD]

10. I do...

I have the notes my first serious boyfriend from high school wrote to me back in 1985. Got the ones from all the college boyfriends. I've thought about burning the ones from my evil ex...but I just haven't. I thought about it early on after the break up but if I didn't do it then...it seems like overkill now when I really don't much care.

[Radio_Lady]

45. Searched for my first boyfriend and spoke with him a few months back.

It was a precious time (1954 - 1956).

He doesn't use email so there's no way to exchange messages with him (his loss).


Here we are at the senior prom:

[swimboy]

11. Sure do.

They're from way back. Before I changed teams.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. My dear swimboy......

What a moving and poignant little message this is........

I sense some sorrow on your part, and my heart goes out to you......

:hug:

[Radio_Lady]

46. Hello swimboy -- Have you found a member of your team to be

close to?

Significant others are richly important in my life. I hope you find someone who loves and supports you.

[redqueen]

12. No

I wish I did.

[hfojvt]

14. I would

if any of them had bothered to ever write me. Actually, I lost the break-up letter one of them sent me, and actually I am not sure she even counts as a girlfriend.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

15. Yes

They help me understand the intense intimacy created over the internet which was almost immediately withdrawn once a real human being was presented.

[Left_Winger]

16. I still have everything she ever gave or wrote me

Well, the only one who ever really meant anything to me.

[BlueIris]

17. I keep some of them so I'll never repeat the mistakes of the past.

And especially with regard to the last asshole, to remind myself, no, he was the one with the problems.

[AlCzervik]

18. just one letter i saved from a high school boyfriend

that was killed in a car accident.

[merh]

19. I had them, before Katrina.

:cry:

I also had birthday cards and notes and such from my parents. Silly cards with "xoxoxox Daddy"or "so proud of you love mommy" and nothing else.. They meant so much to me.


Note to self: Include valued love letters and cards in the evacuation supplies to take when the next storm approaches. :freak:

[Radio_Lady]

47. So sorry you lost those things, merh.

I have a 50th high school reunion coming up next year, and I think I accidentally lost my yearbook. For some reason, I keep looking and looking for it.

We are anticipating a magnitude 9.0 earthquake sometime here in Oregon -- it could be tomorrow or 500 years from now. I hope I'll be gone before then. Good luck with saving anything, including ourselves!

Have you relocated to another area? There's not much in the news right now about hurricane victims. The rapicious news cycle just moves on; however, since I spent so many years in the south, I occasionally read the Miami and New Orleans newspapers on-line.

The scope of these tragedies is truly astounding.

[merh]

54. Thanks for your concern Radio_Lady.

I lost it all, my love letters, my childhood mementos, my year books, my photos, birth certificates, you name it, its gone.

Instead of notes about the water supply and food to pack to take when the next storm threatens, my notes consist of all personal items I cultivate from now to then.

I'm still on the MS Gulf Coast in my femansion on my lot. The New Orleans and Miami papers don't cover our situation all that well.

[Radio_Lady]

60. I'm so sorry for you. My good vibes go to you and your neighbors.

I don't have any connections to MS, so I hope you forgive me. I've never even visited there.

Are you near Biloxi? What's the local paper in your region?

[merh]

64. I live in Biloxi

the paper here is The Sun Herald.

Thanks for the good vibes :-) Every good vibe helps!

[AllegroRondo]

20. I burned all the letters

but kept the recorded phone conversations for legal reasons.

[dpbrown]

21. To say nothing about those photographs!

:evilgrin:

Well, at least they're not on the Internet.

[ScreamingMeemie]

22. No. I don't recall ever getting a a letter from any of my exes.

:hi:

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

23. While he sent me the letters he was not my ex ...

but now that he is its a bit of a reminder of what a year brings . These letters were written exactly a year ago while he was training for Iraq and in the letters we were talking about our plans - plans that never came to fruition . But in the end , I am happy ...

[LeftyMom]

25. I have a box full of stuff from high school in my hall closet

Undoubtedly it's got some letters from boys in it, I can't picture high-school age me throwing them out.

[pdx_prog]

26. funny story...

A girl I started dating when I was 15 (1973) took a white sheet and put my name across the top of it and hung it on the inside of her bedroom door. If I opened a drink and threw the cap down she would pick it up and "mount" it to the sheet later that night. She had pieces of my hair, cigarette butts, trash and all sorts of strange stuff attached to it.

She moved away a few years later but we kept in touch all through the years. We would get together every 2-3 years or so. We always had a yearning for each other but could never seem to be single at the same times in our lives. Finally in 2001 we were both single but I lived on the west coast and she lived on the east coast. We tried the LD relationship thing and it worked very well for a time.

On one of my trips to her place in 2001 she said she had something to show me. She came walking out holding a box, then opened it and pulled out that sheet with all of the stuff still pinned to it. We had a good laugh about it as we talked about each item on it. She remembered when and where she had collected each one of them.

She had every letter, picture and gift that I had ever sent her. Funny....I still have all of the stuff that reminds me of her too.


People ARE funny creatures....lol

[BigMcLargehuge]

27. yes

I don't look at them though, they are buried in my closet. 20 years is a long time to carry around those things, but hey...

[Left Is Write]

28. A few.

They're not a negative part of my life, so I kept them. Most of my old boyfriend memorabilia is packed away in boxes with my old diaries.

[catmandu57]

29. No I had a box full of the past

I built a fire one day and burned it. I burned letters, cards, and photos because they were an anchor that kept me tied to the past with a tarnished chain.
I spent so much time reliving time gone by that I couldn't live in the present, so I cut the chain, now I stay focused on today and tomorrow.

[hippiechick]

30. I have just a few ...

... the 'REAL IMPORTANT' ones.

:hi:

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

31. Hello there Hippiechick .

I had actually forgot all about the letters and pictures that I still had until I heard this song and I said " oh s- !" . This was the first time that I felt comfortable looking back on that period of time .

[hippiechick]

39. Yeah, sometimes it takes awhile ...

... for all the drama associated with someone to numb down, so you can just recall the good stuff.

Glad you've gotten there !! :hug:

[dback]

32. Yep, have a small box in the closet filled with mementos.

I can't imagine throwing it away, though sometimes my SO has a definite edge in his voice when he mentioned "THAT box." I have to remind him that he also has a box, as well as a drawer, filled to the brim.

I only look at the old box once every 7 years or so though--too painful. I could throw away the "Dear John" letters that came at the end of our time together, which I also kept along with all the beautiful, heart-touching stuff, but that'd be dishonest.

It's a good reminder: even the most wonderful things can end, and impermanence is a part of life.

[Chovexani]

35. No, I throw them out

I don't like living in the past. Some of my exes were really heinous anyway, why the hell would I want to relive that shit.

[Heidi]

37. I still get letters from them, and still write letters to them.

With the exception of my ex-husband, my former SOs and I all parted on good terms and remain close friends, because (I believe) we started as friends. Their continued friendship is one of the best things in my life.

[CBHagman]

43. Yes and no.

Got a poem in 1975 and lost it somewhere along the way. :cry:

I think I have some other things tucked away.

[Missy Vixen]

52. I came across this one the other day

Once upon a time, I knew a guy named Jon. He was dreamy. :sigh: In the dictionary under "tall, dark and handsome," there's a photograph of Jon. To this day, I will never know why he was so entranced with me (especially because he was being pursued by much more beautiful women at the time...)

He gave me a handwritten copy of this poem. I framed it. It hung in my room for years after we'd both gone on to date (and in my case, marry,) someone else. It's still a bittersweet memory.

Julie

Midsummer

You loved me for a little,
Who could not love me long
You gave me wings of gladness
And lent my spirit song.

You loved me for an hour
But only with your eyes;
Your lips I could not capture
By storm or by surprise.

Your mouth that I remember
With rush of sudden pain
As one remembers starlight
Or roses after rain...

Out of a world of laughter
Suddenly I am sad...
Day and night it haunts me,
The kiss I never had.

- Sydney King Russell

[hippywife]

58. That's a beautiful poem, Julie!

I would have kept that one, too. :hi:

[Radio_Lady]

62. Oh, Julie -- that is just such a glorious poem.

Thanks for sharing it.

[friesianrider]

53. Of course (except the shitty ones)...

Damn, I miss him. :(

[Chicago Democrat]

55. absolutely not!

esp cause letters were usually "i can't believe yu dumped me, in 10 pages of ranting!"

I don't play well with others, here or out there. My freinds are few and jaded.

[Ramsey]

56. All of them!!

They're for my tell-all memoirs I will write some day!

[yo mama]

57. I have high school poetry....

20 of them,with artwork, all in purple felt tipped pen!!!! They were hand written to me by my very conservative town's resident new kid and hippie. It was nothing more than a high school romance but every time I read them, I laugh at how dramatic and "all or nothing" we were.

[NNadir]

67. Not one. I had them for a while, but they fell off a moving truck.

I don't miss them.

I don't miss who I used to be either.

At the time I lost them my then girlfriend and I were moving to a new house together. Shortly afterward she became my fiance. Shortly after than she became my wife.

It seems as if I have had no other life worth living.

[MrSlayer]

61. No.

As far as I'm concerned no one existed in my life before my wife.

[sendero]

63. Sure...

... who would throw that stuff out? :)

I have most of the cards and letters that were given to be by various SOs.

I don't look at them, but someday I will.

[InvisibleTouch]

65. I have a little notecard that I kept because it's so funny.

I should emphasize that it's not, not from a boyfriend, ex or otherwise, but from someone who fancied himself to have some kind of an emotional connection with me. Even after I'd explicitly told him I wasn't interested. At one point he sent me this little card filled with the most ridiculous gushy text - I didn't know whether to be repulsed or die laughing. I tried once again to break it to him politely that a friendship was fine, but I wasn't interested in anything more. Not long afterward we had a falling-out over something else altogether, and he then went around badmouthing me to mutual friends and acquaintances - which made the note particularly amusing to me, for some reason. But what do you expect ... he was a proto-Freeper and a dittohead.

[bullwinkle428]

66. I've kept things...cards, letters, little gifts...

...looked at some of the things my ex had written to me after our recent breakup just to convince myself that she actually did have feelings for me at one time, so I could get out the funk that had me feeling totally used at the time of the breakup...

[no name no slogan]

68. Some, but not many

I used to keep everything. In fact, I just found a bunch of stuff from my ex-college girlfriend while I was cleaning out my house I used to share with my ex-wife. I also found a couple of cards my ex-wife gave me shortly after we got engaged. I tossed them though, as I already have enough reminders of her, anyway.