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Saturday, September 26, 2026Est. 2026. Most of what's in here is older.

Don't fix it if it ain't broke

Still Running / Clothes and gear

No. 0024Clothes and gear

1951

Oxford leather bookbag

Running 75 years

Grandpa says 1880. Mom the historian disagrees.

An old leather school satchel from Austria. Not the one in the story. — An old leather school satchel from Austria. Not the one in the story. Photo: Nxr-at, CC BY-SA 4.0. The real one is in the original post.

In 1951 a boy starting high school got this bookbag secondhand. His mother had found it at an auction of old school supplies that had been sitting in storage. Since then it has carried books for all three of his kids and then a grandchild. Grandpa dates it to around 1880, on the word of a farmer he knew in the 70s. His daughter is an archaeologist and historian, and she puts it closer to the 1940s. Nobody has budged.

The uncle replaced most of the metal hardware sometime in the 70s or 80s.

Retold from a post on r/BuyItForLife. Read the original

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No. 0026Clothes and gear

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No. 0025Clothes and gear

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No. 0100Clothes and gear

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