I’ve gotten into a habit. Whenever I use a particular type of printed material, I ask myself the following:

“Will this disappear and go digital? Can it be replaced by an online or mobile product?”

I’m all for efficiency and common-sense digital solutions to paper-based products, like tax forms, or scanned documents that I email rather than snail-mail. Even the occasional evite doesn’t bother me the way it used to, though a sublime letterpress invitation is SO much more impressive.

We own iPads. We have, and enjoy, books and newspapers on them. But we still buy and prefer real books and real newspapers. As I look over my left shoulder, I see yellowed newspaper articles and old magazines I’ve kept from certain momentous occasions – the death of John Lennon and 9/11, for example.

I have a few boxes of cherished mementos from my youth. Cards from my late parents. My son’s printed athletic and academic awards. Postcards from far-flung vacations of friends and family.

All of these are printed materials hold such meaning. Not to turn all morbid on you, but even the Mass cards for my late family members are things I keep, looking at them occasionally to reflect on lives that meant so much to me.

Yes, I’m too emotional. But these printed keepsakes are meaningful. I cannot say the same about any electronic message I’ve ever gotten.

Recently, I was fortunate to see two terrific plays. My sister Andrea Gallo starred in Broomstick, a one-woman play at the N.J. Repertory Company in Long Branch. Days later I snagged a rare ticket to see Bryan Cranston (of Breaking Bad fame) star in All the Way at the ART in Cambridge, MA. I have the playbills to prove it. What’s a play without a playbill?

How could they possibly do away with printed playbills? These handy little show guides are helpful to the audience before, during and following a production. They can’t replace them with a microsite, and certainly not a mobile app, since phones must be silenced. I save them, as I do concert ticket stubs.

So I salute the playbill, and all the other types of printed materials that make memories sweet.

What are some of your favorite printed items? Snap a pic and share!