Ugly Blanket Crew
While I'm not particularly sentimental about most objects, there are some things I've acquired over the years that I can't see myself getting rid of. There's a little leather frog filled with glass beads that I've had since I was a teenager. I have a half of a dollar bill that is my share of the first two dollars that my band made playing music. And I have my ugly blanket.
I got this blanket while I was deployed in Iraq in 2003. It's huge and soft and very...colorful. We didn't have much in the way of comfort items over there, so when someone came around asking if we wanted to buy one of these blankets, I jumped at the opportunity. Despite being the desert, it does get cold there later in the year. And this blanket was a blessing.
So much so that I went to great lengths to make sure it would fit in my duffle bag to get it back home with me. Since then it's been in regular use wherever I've lived, much to my wife's dismay. It spent a bit of time in storage, but now that my son has his own bed it's found a new home. He loves it and I love that he loves it. And since I'm frequently sleeping in his bed, I get to enjoy it again.
I'm sure there must be at least a few other folks out there hanging on to ugly Iraqi blankets. If you're out there, salute you.