I save things. One of these days, I really must pare all the stuff I have accumulated, but I have a penchant for connecting memories with things, or I convince myself that somebody other than me thinks all these items are important or collectible.

I have a fairly large window sticker, oval, that states: NATO Your Best Bet For Peace. I have no idea where I got it, but it may have been at the Knoxville Worlds Fair.

NATO was formed in 1949 as the counterpoint to the Soviet Unions Iron Curtain. The basic premise is that an attack by an enemy on any member nation is considered an attack on all and the members must support each other. However, that doesnt mean everybody goes to war.

NATO members may judge for themselves what kind of aid to give and how to deliver it.

Fine-tuning the NATO military command structure was overseen by the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces from World War II, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. That was in 1951. Ike got the job done just in time to become our president in 1952.

There is another article of the NATO charter that mandates consultation if a member nation feels threatened. Turkey has invoked that article four times, Poland once the only instances of official come-help-us military consultation in NATO history.

NATO was the right thing to do when the Iron Curtain appeared impenetrable. The Iron Curtain is gone, but plenty more curtains some without catchy nicknames persist. I have my window sticker, just for reassurance.

I must say Ronald Reagans Trust but verify sounds better every day.

Then theres the USS North Carolina. Its an awesome battlewagon. Ive visited the ship and I have collected several trinkets over the years. But rummaging through some stuff looking for other stuff, I came across a fact sheet that jogged my memory about just how important the North Carolina was in WWII.

It was the only American battleship to engage in all of the 12 major naval offensives in the Pacific. It was the first U.S. battleship to fire into Japanese territory. The ship traveled more than 300,000 miles during the war and consumed approximately 2 million gallons of fuel.

Thats slightly more than 6.5 gallons per statute mile. Well, the ship displaces 35,000 tons and carried an active-duty crew of 2,000.

If you havent been to Wilmington to see the battleship memorial, you should. After all, its not that far north from the Grand Strand, and lots of us go there when we can.

And in the good riddance department, an item that was saved from an 1888 copy of the Newton Enterprise newspaper that I am now saving. I redact last names, you know, just in case.

On Sunday, the thirteenth day of May 1988, William, aged eighteen years and my wife, Sarah, aged forty years, ran away from my home in Lincoln County. William is about five feet and six inches high, has dark hair, fair complexion, and black eyes, short black beard on his face and weighs about 165 pounds.

Sarah is a small spare-made woman with light red hair, fair complexion with warts on the back of the left hands, weighs about 112 pounds, and uses eyeglasses in reading or sewing. I think they have gone to South Carolina. Probably to some cotton factory.

I publish this not to bring them back to this county again, but to let the good people know who they are, wherever they may be. The announcement was signed by husband Joseph.

Ol Joe didnt leave much to the imagination, making sure people knew without a doubt Williams beard was on his face. I do wonder how many left hands, warts and all, Sarah had.

The irony is I found this forgotten item not long after hearing Rod Stewart sing on the radio about a woman named Maggie. It appears William was not as indecisive as Rod.

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No worries, I have a NATO sticker - Morganton News Herald