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The Love Box

I have a little ceramic box that sits on my dresser in the bed room. It’s red and has a multi-color lid with the word “Love” on top in very sixities-style lettering. It’s a cool box that Jill gave me for Valentine’s day some ten years ago.

The “Love Box” as I call it, came to be the container for all my little curios, strange and unusual trinkets that remind me of various times in my life.

Ten years of trinkets. I thought it would be a good time to take an inventory of these tiny items, just, as they say, for fun.

Love Box Contents: Valentine’s Day 2008

• Pierced ear ring, dangling old fashioned microphone. A very heavy earring. I believe I wore it to one show, but it pulled my lobe down to the floor.
• “Born Again Hippie” button. A sixties pin I have had since I was a kid.
• Key to Mercedes. Reminder of the 1970 Mercedes Benz I drove in 1987-88. It was a cool coupe.
• Cuff link from Grandpa Sorrells. Has a Scottish terrier on it. Makes me remember Papa who died in 1968. My Irish Grandfather.
• One ounce silver buffalo coin. I was working on my newspaper The Color Green in 1994 and we printed in Union, SC. The guys that owned the paper used to collect the silver than ran off of the photographic plates in the camera room and a friend would melt it down and pour it into a mold that looked like a buffalo nickel, only a full ounce. One day the guy gave me one and I kept it.
• 1925 Liberty Peace silver dollar my Grandfather Smith gave me in 1976.
• A chrome guitar slide my friend Denny Walley (Frank Zappa) gave to me.
• “Grass” button from the sixties. Dude.
• Mercedes key bob. Besides the above key, all that remains of my Benz.
• Mom’s blue marble. A “breaker” marble my mom had when she was a kid. I played with it as a child. Amazing it survived.
• A silver ball bearing the size of the tip of my thumb. I was walking through the mall in Spartanburg about 15 years ago when someone dropped several of these from the second floor, which was dangerous, given the weight of the thing,
• 2001 Gold Dollar. I have three of them. Pretty cool.
• Caesar's Palace one dollar token. My only item from the GRITZ trip to Vegas with Molly Hatchet.
• BSA (Boy Scouts) wooden coin “do a good turn.” Given to me by my neighbor Joe Jones.
• An aluminum Apollo 13 coin. Given out at the Ron Howard movie years ago.
• Toy diamond ring. When I was reporting on a Carol Channing show, she tossed these out during "Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend.”
• US Quarter, SC back 2
• US Quarter, Tennessee back
• US Quarter, Georgia back
• US Quarter, NC back
• US Quarter, NY back
• MTV guitar pick. A promo given out during the network’s first year back in 1982.
• Easyriders pewter pin 98-99 from Charlotte Bike show when Marshall Tucker performed.
• Gritz Pin. The last of the promo buttons we gave away with magazine subscriptions in 2002.
• Indian head penny 1906
• Wheat back pennies 1950, 1951, 1952, 1956, 1958, 1941, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1948, 1946
• Lincoln Pennies 1959, 1960, 1961, 1974
• 1937 Buffalo Nickel
• 2005 New Buffalo Nickel
• Aquarius ear ring. A gift from Jill several years ago.
• Half of torn dollar bill. My best friend moved away many years ago and he tore a dollar in half and said he'd keep it and think of me every time he looked at it . I would do the same.
• Spittoono 1997 guitar pick
• Woodstock/scrooge color Peanuts ear ring
• Roy Orbison sunglasses enamel pin
• Alien guitar pick
• Mod guitar pick
• cool mirrored prism button
• Calvert’s guitar shop pick. My friend Randall of Silver Travis used to have a guitar shop in North Carolina.
• Bowery smashed/embossed penny. I have had this since 1975 when we saw then unknown Alabama playing at the Bowery in Myrtle Beach.
• 1979 Susan B Anthony Dollar  (2)
• 1969 Kennedy Half Dollar, Silver!
• American Flag guitar Pick
• Psychedelic thumb pick
• 1998 Mexican dime
• E Street Band 1999 Tour official badge
• Men of God Key chain, a Christmas gift from my late Aunt Becky
• Small Nashville Music City Pin from 60s
• Gold Dove pin
• Transparent Blue Medium Fender Pic, I used these pics for years with Buffalo Hut Coalition.
• Cigar band from Cuban cigar.
• 1968 Viet Nam Coin I got from my Uncle.
• 1966 Viet Nam Coin
• String Peg from old Yamaha guitar, my first acoustic.
• 1945 Walking Liberty Half Dollar
• 1988 Canadian Dollar Coin
• Stray button for shirt
• Palmetto Music pick. From my buddy Freddie's music store.
• Rhino Records Badge from 1991
• WNCW Radio Anniversary Badge

After all of those memories, I looked inside the box to see if there was anything else. I picked it up, turned it to the side, and out came a tiny chain with an enamel heart. I have no idea where it came from. Best I can figure it was there to remind me that in my pile of coins, guitar picks, and curios, nothing is more important than love. I must agree. Happy Valentine’s day everyone. Love the one you’re with. Peace.

Keep it Real. Keep it Southern.
Buffalo

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