Just off the top of my head, I would define it 
just as it reads: Something with which you or 
someone else had or has an "emotional attachment".

Before you press the "delete" button, let me explain.

By "emotional attachment", I don't necessarily 
mean a strong attachment.  It could be very 
fleeting.

Example:  You spend a quarter for today's 
newspaper.  You have 25¢ worth of emotional 
attachment to the quarter while it is in your 
hand and on your mind.  You have an emotional 
attachment to the newspaper all the time you're 
reading it, even if you only read the comics 
page.  With both of those items you have a 
"personal connection" while you are involved with 
them.  Even though you have long since forgotten 
they ever existed your "mind tracks" will remain 
on them always.  (With the quarter the "mind 
tracks" of thousands of people will remain on it 
for its lifetime.)

Example:  Historical newspapers being my field 
(I'm retired now), I once had several newspapers 
which were delivered to Thomas Jefferson.  If 
memory serves, I sold one of them about 15 years 
ago for $500.  Now, an identical newspaper 
without the Jefferson connection would have sold 
for perhaps $5.  The Jefferson paper brought the 
money because of the "personal connection", a 
part of which was the "emotional attachment" 
Jefferson had with the paper while he was reading 
it.

Example:  From 1960 to 1962 I was a Xerographer. 
That meant I ran a Xerox machine.  But that was 
in the days of the Model A Xerox - the very first 
commercial machine.  You could make one copy 
every four minutes and each copy had to be 
exposed and developed by hand.  I of course had a 
"personal connection" to the machine and the 
copies.  Today, our Museum of American Heritage 
in Palo Alto, CA, has one of the old Model A 
Xeroxes and our printer has taught himself to use 
it.  This may well be the only operational 
machine left in the country, and he makes copies 
on the old machine for special events.  He too 
has a "personal connection" to that machine, but 
it's different than my "personal connection".  To 
me it was a valuable machine serving the purpose 
for which it was intended.  I attached no 
historical or sentimental value to it in the 
'60s.  To him it's an historical artifact.

Comments welcome, especially the ones that go, "Huh?"

-Jim Lyons

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