Why This Childhood Lamp Has 50,000 "Likes" on Facebook

One child's trash is another mom's treasure. That was the case for one son, at least, who got all his discarded trinkets back in the form of one of the most thoughtful wedding gifts we've ever seen.

"This lamp has my childhood in it . . . everything my mom ever found in my pockets when doing laundry for me when I was little," the Reddit user noted when posting photos of the lamp, a glass jar filled with dollars and coins, name tags, marbles, fortune cookie scraps, and items — like a Gameboy Super Mario Land game — that only a child born in the mid-'80s would have.

Although he first posted a photo of the lamp two years ago, it's found a new life on social media, and after it was posted to the Budget101 Facebook page, it went viral, receiving more than 52,000 "likes" and 38,000 shares.

What's perhaps most touching is the evolution of items collected through the boy's childhood and even into adulthood.

"It started off with mostly sticks, rocks, and marbles," he said. "But over time it ended up having all sorts of items ranging from Pogs, a Gameboy game, a Magic School Bus McDonald's toy, yo-yos, and Laser Quest scorecards. There are also plenty of sticks, springs, rubber-bands, and twist-ties because I went through a phase where I remember telling my parents I was going to build a robot with just those items. I will admit that there are a few items in there from my early 20s too, as like any lazy college student, I let my mom wash my clothes while staying at home from college between semesters."

What's perhaps most touching is that, although the now-married son says this was "the best gift I've ever received," it wasn't much of a surprise that it existed. Whenever his mom was doing laundry and found items while cleaning out his pockets, she'd put them in the glass jar on the top shelf in the laundry room.

"I remember as a kid wishing so hard that I could get some of the items back, but it was forbidden to even go near the jar," he remembered. "By the time I was old enough to be sneaky about it and get into it, I had just learned to accept that that was how it worked and I wouldn't get those things back."

The funniest part? When he was getting married, his mom gave a speech at the rehearsal dinner about the jar and then pulled out a giant gift bag.

"It was in that moment that I thought, 'I'm gonna get the jar!' I started tearing up before she had finished talking. When she did, I opened the bag and found that not only was I getting the jar, I was getting it back in the form of a lamp. And yes, she has sealed the top of the lamp to it so that I still cannot open it!"

Well played, Mom.