Useless

This is the most useless - non decorative - item we have in the house. Yes, it currently has the garage key in it, but that’s more because I can’t be bothered hanging it up with the other keys. So it serves no purpose whatsoever, and hasn’t done for eleven years. Which is a good thing.
It was eleven years ago yesterday that I smoked my last cigarette, and I guess I hang on to the ashtray to remind me not to do so again. Perhaps that’s why I leave the keys there - subconsciously I believe I can’t use it as an ashtray because it’s being used for something else. I’m probably overthinking this a bit too much.
The observant amongst you will recognise the Barclays logo. This ashtray used to sit on my desk at work and, as soon as the doors were closed to the public, was heavily used until the day smoking in the workplace was banned altogether. At which point I “liberated” it to use at home. Strange to think back to when I started work in the bank nearly fifty years ago. Everybody smoked in the office in those days, as did the customers in the banking hall. Indeed, it was only a year or so before I joined that smoking on the tills was banned. Though it was still permitted to spark up as soon as the doors were closed.
I really find it hard to believe nowadays that smoking was so commonplace back then. It seems only a hardcore still indulge, though many have switched to vaping, which is probably not any better in the long run. The cynical part of me says the only reason the government has not totally banned smoking is because it still receives a reasonable chunk of tax income from it each year.
On reflection, maybe that ashtray isn’t so useless after all. It serves as a reminder of good times and acts as a warning not to restart unhealthy habits. And it does make a very handy key repository…