Charmed I Am Sure

I grew up with a father who loved to buy jewelry for women.....and a mother who hated jewelry.....fortunately for me....I was all about the bling.  On my 13th birthday my father presented me a charm bracelet.  It was a double strand bracelet that had tiny silver hearts down the middle and I loved it.  There was only one charm on that bracelet and it was the heart (on the right side of the bracelet).  From that day forward until I was 21 years old every major event was journaled on that charm bracelet.  My BFF Carol and her family went to Colorado one year and since I had never been (we only came to Alabama on vacations)....she brought me back a silver state of Colorado.  There is a lighthouse charm....because I loved Sanibel's lighthouse, a half coin of a best friends charm.....Carol had the other half....(hummmmm wonder if she still does).  My grandmother gave me an Alabama charm and when my parents gave me my first Chihuahua....I got a dog charm....with a note in the box letting me know that there was a live prize just outside our back door. Other gifts followed suit....rocking chair charm for the year I got a rocking chair, car for my 18th birthday, dolphin for the year I got tickets to Sea World, Mickey Mouse head for 1972 and my first trip to Disney World.  There are other charms that represent firsts in my life....there is a skier....for the one and only time I attempted to waterski, a tamborine for my first duet in church with Carol....we were the Hick Duet....it was badddddd, another lighthouse from Key West, a sweet 16 charm (actually there are two....both my parents gave me one that year), two representing graduation from high school, one from the UN in New York brought to me from my friend Michele Maver....she and her now husband, and Marsha Jackson went there when we were in High School.  How exciting. 

My three favorites are my school safety patrol badge from when I was in 6th grade....AND a Smithsonian charm I bought when I got to go to Washington D.C. in the 6th grade because I WAS a school safety patrol...and the charm my dad gave me when I completed confirmation class.  Yep, this charm bracelet bears a lot of memories.  I don't wear it anymore...it is too heavy and makes too much racket....but I take it out from time to time and remember....especially now that my dad is gone.  Do you have a memory keeper like this?  Tell me about it in a comment.  I would love to hear your story.