Things with memories

There are 2 rooms in this house that have plate racks around the walls, the dining room and the hall. The plates on the dining room racks are souvenirs from various holidays we had abroad - a plate was the one, and usually the only, memento that we brought home. Many of the Greek plates are a bit similar but there are a few special ones that remind me not only of the holiday but of the marketplace where they were bought. I can conjure up the smell of the spices, the heat and dust, the bartering, the food we ate and the people we met, just by looking at the plate. If these plates went to a charity shop, nobody would be interested in them, but to me, they're special memories of times I'll never live again.