I’ve had this old blanket since I was 11. I don’t wanna say my exact age but let’s say it’s been over a decade. When I moved homes, I just had to have my blanket and old pillowcase. When I moved homes my mom threw away my old blanket and I was really upset and my mom just about got it back before it got disposed of for good and I was so happy that my blanket was “saved”.
The blanket’s so old it has holes in it and a few years ago I found out the exact same blanket is still being sold and I bought a new one which looks nothing like my old one because it’s…well, new, but I’m still using the old one and the new one is still in its packaging. I almost feel like it’s a friend? Almost? And by sleeping with another blanket I’m betraying it or something. I just feel immediately comforted by the blanket even though there’s nothing objectively comforting about it (it’s not a weighted blanket and is so worn down it’s not very insulating).
I don’t know. I feel some weird emotional connection to that blanket? Does anyone else feel something similar or can relate?
I’m closer to 40 than 35, and my wife recently gave up ever replacing “college blanket”, which was actually bought for me in early high school after I asked if I could take my grandparents comforter home with me. They found one and got it for me that Christmas (I think it was Ross/home goods), it was probably the most generic comforter ever, I always thought I’d be able to find another when needed. After 2 cats, a dog and the better part of 2 decades, my wife decided it was time to let it go and get a replacement, no problem, it’s the most generic comforter ever. She gets me a nice duvet, so we can keep the inside nice and replace the outside as needed, nope definitely not the same. She gets a comforter, it’s stitched way too tightly, and doesn’t breathe the same (okay maybe a 20 year old blanket has gained a bit of aeration, maybe it breathes better than it did when it was new, but you can definitely tell the padding is stitched much more tightly than college blanket’s ever was), she got me a “cooling” comforter, it’s decent, but paired best with college blanket, and when I only have 1 blanket 9 times out of 10 it’s college blanket.
Now college blanket has had 5 cats and 3 dogs and the majority of my life, it’s been the bed of desire for multiple animals, myself included, and my wife sometimes asks for it when she’s sick. Apparently it’s really scratchy, and holey, and it’s closely missing about 20% of it’s original fluff, and I would put it away in a place of honor in a heartbeat if I could find a new one. I swear it was 40 dollars at a home goods store, in a pile with a hundred others just like it, but we’ve looked for the better part of a decade now, and it’s been deemed irreplaceable. It would probably be the first material thing I went for if we had to evacuate. I’m not highly sentimental, but you don’t let a good blanket go.