Every single home in Lubock has that one thing, the item you’ve carried across state lines, through multiple moves, into and out of marriages, and far past the point of explanation. It’s not valuable, nor is it useful, and honestly, you can’t find the life of you, even figure out why you have it at all. But, alas, there it is. Tossing it is simply out of the question. It’s the one item that has survived break-ups and tornado warnings for years. It’s practically in your will…
Photo by Tania Melnyczuk on Unsplash
Can you picture yours? Think about it.
Mine would have to be a drawing of a toucan that a boy gave me in 7th grade in art class. I stowed it away in a box, and no matter where I go, the toucan comes with me. Why? I have no early idea. It just does. If we’re apart, sh*t just doesn’t feel right.
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Anyway, I asked everyone in town to tell me about that one weird thing they’ve been dragging all over the world. Here’s what they had to say:
Fly Ball
Some people are hanging onto objects with absolutely zero sentimental value — but extreme emotional attachment. Take Janessa, for example, who has kept a random fly ball she caught in 7th grade. She played baseball instead of softball because she “likes making her life difficult,” which honestly feels like the most West Texas form of character development.
Photo by Chris Briggs on UnsplashCreepy Clown
Others are holding onto items that feel a little cursed… or at least questionably alive. Emmily still has a ceramic clown head she won at Joyland more than a decade ago. The most shocking part? It hasn’t broken. Joyland prizes are not meant to outlive presidencies, yet here this thing stands.
Photo by David Valentine on UnsplashAre You Okay, Bubba?
Meanwhile, Bubba claims the only thing he’s been holding onto for years is “air in my lungs,” which is either deep or deeply concerning.
Photo by Fabian Møller on UnsplashWho Doesn’t Like a Nice Rock?
A few folks confessed to keeping things that are so random they might actually belong in a museum. Hub City Cosplay is emotionally tethered to a rock they found at SPC in Levelland. Just… a rock. And somehow, Woodson commented that he has the same rock, which raises questions I’m not prepared to answer today.
Photo by Scott Webb on UnsplashOdd Book
Then there’s Good Morgen, who owns a mysterious little coffee-table book about people making wheelchairs out of trash. No words. No explanation. No idea where it came from. It just appeared in adulthood like a sad, philanthropic cryptid.
Photo by charlesdeluvio on UnsplashThe Acorn
Some stories, however, could be studied by psychologists for decades. Clint has kept a large acorn for years because it was involved in a bizarre police incident where an officer mistook it for a gunshot and lit up someone’s vehicle. Everyone survived — including the acorn. He also keeps a geode, a skull, and a piece of bulletproof glass, which means Clint absolutely has a drawer labeled “Oddities.”
Photo by Heather Gill on UnsplashMemories
Objects from childhood tend to latch onto us in the most unexplainable ways. Charlie still has a “gold lion,” and you don’t need to know what that looks like — every Lubbock kid from the 90s can picture it immediately. Anna refuses to toss a knife from her grandparents’ restaurant in Monahans. The blade is dull, the handle is melted, but she will be buried with it.
Photo by SHOT on UnsplashRice, Anyone?
And then there’s Sheila, who broke her rice cooker after a decade and still kept two random pieces of it. Meanwhile, her man Joshua wants the world to know he keeps shoeboxes for absolutely no reason at all. They might be soulmates.
Photo by Rohan Krishnan on UnsplashGROSS!
But the crown jewel of weird keepsakes comes from Randy, who once pinned his junior-high toenail to his bedroom door… where it stayed for forty years. He later mailed another toenail to his mom with no note and no return address. It arrived broken, which might be the single saddest sentence ever written.
Photo by Kameron Kincade on UnsplashAnd just when you thought that was enough strange… I got even more.
Lubbock folks are also keeping single bowling shoes, chargers they haven’t owned devices for since 2010, wooden ducks that stare into their souls, taxidermy ferrets, VHS tapes labeled “DO NOT WATCH,” and potatoes that refuse to die. One woman even has a rubber chicken in a sombrero, not because she likes it, but because it has gained “authority” in her household.
Photo by Ray Reyes on Unsplash
So honestly? Whatever your weird little object is — a toucan drawing, a melted knife, a Joyland clown head, a toenail from the 70s — just know you’re not alone. Everyone in this city has at least one item they should’ve thrown away but didn’t, and at this point, it’s part of who we are.
It’s not clutter. It’s Lubbock personality.
Keep scrolling for more silly fun in the galleries below…
Why Here? The Stories That Brought Us to Lubbock
Whether you couldn’t wait to get here or got sucked back in after trying your luck elsewhere, you’re here. See if you can relate to any of these stories.
I’ll bet my bottom dollar that you do.
Gallery Credit: Chrissy
What Your Favorite Lubbock Snack Says About Your Personality
Scroll the gallery and find your favorite snack to see what it says about you…
Gallery Credit: Chrissy