My wife and I are packing to move right now. As we were going through the kitchen I was emptying the cabinets and we store all of our glasses and cups upside down. Of course this has been handed down generationally to us from our families. And it most likely started in the dust bowl era. What other things around the house or in your day to day activities can you think of that are directly related to historical events/eras?

I have a Hamilton railroad watch that belonged to my paternal grandfather. (As best as I've been able to determine, it was manufactured in 1913.) He was a brakeman and later an engineer with the New York Central railroad from about the mid-1910s (except for time out for Army duty in WWI) through 1957. As such, he was an engineer during the golden age of passenger rail, and drove both the steam-powered behemoths and their successors, the diesel-electric locomotives. (A tiny inscription on the inside of the back indicates that it was cleaned and adjusted in 1966. The insides still look brand new.)

Still use as a toolbox the family mailbox from about 1910 !

Still use a kitchen clock that was a wedding gift from my g-g-grandfather to his new wife in 1844.