Last month, getting ready to go hunting I pulled out the big plastic tote with my hunting gear in it and came across this:

I'm sure most of you will recognize it as a case for a small, one burner stove. Inside...

The Coleman 508 stove, along with the original paperwork and even the little adjusting wrench.

I'm pretty sure the last time I used this was in May of 2002 on a camping trip and to be honest, I thought it had gotten lost/given away/thrown away during one of my many moves (since that camping trip I've had 7 addresses) so it was a bit of a happy surprise to find I still had it.
Close up:

So here's the story: In 1989 I had just completed my first overseas tour in Germany (Army) and had orders for Fort Lewis, WA. An old friend I'd known from years before lived in Hailey, ID. We'd stayed in touch and since I was going to be passing through on my way from my family home in Denver, we decided to meet up for some camping. We met in Pinedale, WY (which 23 years later, was the location of the Walk the Winds teardrop gathering) and found a campsite. As we were camping he took this cool little one burner stove out to cook on. I'd seen Coleman stoves before, of course, but to me a "coleman stove" meant a green, two burner stove with a tank on the front.
I liked his little stove, which was actually a "peak one" dual-fuel stove with little folding legs on it (I think "Peak One" was when Coleman was trying to appeal to people who thought "Coleman" was a stodgy old name they associated with their parents.)
So as soon as I got to Fort Lewis, I immediately went shopping for a stove like that. I looked at the Peak Ones and the Colemans, and even though the Coleman had a bigger tank and a carrying case, it cost less than the Peak One. Ultimately, I decided that the Coleman was a better buy and got it. That little stove has been on camping trips all over the Pacific Northwest, also Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and South Dakota.
After I met my now-wife, all our cooking was done on a dual burner propane stove and the little Coleman gas burner was forgotten. But now that I have lanterns to feed, it makes sense to use my little gas burner since I know I'll be carrying gas with me anyway. Of course, this will be primarily for solo camping trips - when the wife and I go together in our Teardrop "Bubbles" we'll take the dual burner propane.
Still a nice little addition to my "collection" -- I guess you can say I started my collecting almost 25 years ago I just didn't know I was a collector yet! [biggrin]