REMEMBER ASHTRAYS WITH LOGOS? — Sharon Mark Cohen, MPA, UN Representative for IHAN

Ashtrays with logos were very special keepsakes in our parents’ day. In my in-laws’ collection, we found a small pile of their most memorable ceramic trays.

Laughingly, following in our parents’ footsteps, my husband and I are not new-age minimalists. Let’s say we have our fair number of items in our collections that we are not ready to toss.

Over the years, I’ve tried to display many of the more “important” items we had stashed by framing many things, such as our collection of restaurant matchbooks, before smoking was no longer allowed in most restaurants. Our walls are covered in a way that tells the story of our lives.

For our 50th wedding anniversary, while pulling out lots of memorabilia to display, I came across some ashtrays with logos. That memorabilia from a bygone era was something I kept from my in-laws’ house.

My next decision will be what to do with those ashtrays. Who will they be passed down to, or what depository will they be placed in? The first one is from the Golden Anniversary party of my mother-in-law’s sister Rosie. It’s dated June 25, 1964. Our daughter Rina is named for Aunt Rosie, so does the ashtray go to her? What would she do with it?

Rosie’s one surviving child of five, Jerry, now 92, was at our Golden Anniversary party in August. While I had the ashtray on display with other memorabilia, I never pointed it out to him or asked whether he wanted it or knew who would like to keep it. I’ll get back to him about that.

Two 1963 Battin High School 35th-class reunion ashtrays were kept neatly stacked. Who would know H B S stands for Battin High School? That was the all-girls high school I graduated from in 1971, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Way before my time, Battin had been a co-ed school that my father-in-law attended, graduating in 1928.

Battin High School no longer exists; in the 1970s, it was replaced by the co-ed Elizabeth High School. Would the school be interested in the ashtrays? The Elizabeth Public Library? Should we give one to each of our sons and give the “Rosie” ashtray to Rina? Thank goodness none of our children are smokers, but unlike their parents and grandparents, they are not big collectors.

Added to the others in the collection, there’s the one from the Elizabeth Wrestling Club from the 1950s. Talk about nostalgia. My husband’s older brother, Jeffrey, wrestled at Jefferson High School, the all-boys school in Elizabeth, before graduating in 1958. Should we donate that tray with the small chip (oops, now a larger glued-together crack) to the Elizabeth Library, or ask our nieces and nephews who would treasure it?

Decisions, decisions. One thing is for sure - we will not be the ones to toss them.