One of my oldest possessions is going in the trash today.

I've had a down feather pillow since the 1960's. Yes it's at least 50 years old and I use it every night.  I keep making new covers for it, and I have washed it a few times, too. It was my favorite squishy body pillow and I took it with me when I traveled because there was nothing like it anywhere I went.

Yesterday I washed it for the first time in my front loading machine, and it unbalanced the load and I ended up wrapping it in towels and stepping on it to get the extra water out. First of all, the water was yellow/brown. Yuck.

To my surprise, some of the stuffing came out and it WASN'T DOWN, it was shredded foam! Imagine it, shredded foam from the '60s. It was dark mustard brown and super crumbly.

I've been living a lie all this time! My down pillow was cheap-o shredded foam. It has been getting smaller and flatter and now I know why. The foam was just collapsing.

Today I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to try to replace it, but you know nothing will be exactly like my old faker. So I went to Jo-Ann's and got some pillow ticking and 2 different kinds of stuffing. Maybe something will at least be OK? 50 years is a long time to have a pillow.