AA
col-lec-tion :
The act or process of collecting.
A group of objects or works to be seen, studied, or kept together.
An accumulation, Gathering together.
ad-dic-tion:
Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance.
The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or involved in something.
packrat:
packrat:
Any of various small North American rodents that collect in or around
their nests a great variety of small objects .
their nests a great variety of small objects .
A collector or accumulator of miscellaneous objects.
"....My NAME IS CAROLE, AND I'M ADDICTED TO DISHES"
Exactly when does the 'Packrat' syndrome begin? Early on would be my guess. Are we 'Connoisseurs of Collecting' or 'Selective Packrats'? Or perhaps, we're obsessed with possessing more than one of a particular item. I'm inclined to think that a lot of the enjoyment of collecting is the 'Hunt'. Finding that exact item that you've been looking for to add to your collection can be so exciting. Whatever the case, collecting is fun!
A
As a child I absolutely loved paper dolls, or cut-outs as I always called them. Those cut-outs came in card board folders that were used to store the paper dolls and the clothes that you had already cut out. I can remember saving all the folders. My paper doll collection consisted of Wedding, Baby Doll, Movie Star, Family, etc. One in particular that I remember was from the movie 'Oklahoma'. How I wish I had saved all of them because I see them constantly at fleamarkets, antique shows, and on Ebay ...and they're very pricey at times.
But, my all time favorite and most fun collection is one that I started maybe 2 years ago ...vintage wedding pictures ...all eras. I collect them for the styles. I read an article in the newspaper a few years ago regarding the various change in wedding gown styles ...that got me to thinking about what a wonderful collection old wedding photos would be. I collect them like someone collects stamps, for my own enjoyment, and I have so many that I actually needed a special cabinet to store them, one with separate sections so that I could separate them according to era. This collection has been so much fun! I started out by just copying photos and putting them in a binder, but it soon expanded to purchasing the actual vintage photographs. Ebay, flea markets, antique shops, relatives, are the best places to find them. My best find was at a yard sale. I was looking around at items displayed on a lawn under a tent. This was not your average garage sale because there were a lot of antiques. The man running it asked me if I was looking for anything in particular, I said old photos ...he asked what kind ...I said 'wedding'. He told me to wait while he went into the house. In a few minutes he returned with a chair in one hand and a binder in the other. He put the chair down, told me to sit and handed me the binder. I started to look through it and my heart started to pound .... it was all old wedding pictures ... '30's, '40's, '50's. I didn't even look through all of it, but I went far enough to know that I had to have it, all of it! I figured that he'd want at least $300. for the entire album. I thought, ok, first I'll ask him how much for each photo. He said it depended, maybe $5 or $10 each. Then I asked how much for the whole thing. He didn't answer and kept side stepping my question ...but, I kept asking (answer me mister, my heart can't take the suspense). I decided that I would pay $100. at the very most for the entire album and I figured he would eventually say $300. Finally, after quite awhile, he answered, "$100." (at that point I almost fell off the chair!) .... I said, "Would you take $90.?". He said yes. I walked across to my car and when I got in, I let out an excited high pitched "eeeeee" and just shook all over. ... Damn!, I hit the mother load!! Quite a few of the pictures in this album were post card size and from Romania. One thing that all of these vintage Romanian brides had in common was that they wore metallic streamers on their veils or bouquets. I tried in vain to find out what the streamers meant.. .. I'm thinking a wish for prosperity. I was meant to have the album, I'm convinced of it.
When my husband and I were at a local antique mall, I was looking at a doll and a woman in another stall said she couldn't help but over hear what I said. She asked what else I collect. Of course, I went through my current collection list. I mentioned old wedding pictures. She said that she was doing an estate sale for a man who owned some sort of local newspaper and that there were some wedding pictures, the kind that brides would have sent to the newspaper to announce their marriage. She asked if we could meet her at the house and so we did ..... Boxes and stuff every where. I found the box with the pictures ... there were a lot. I asked her what she wanted for them and she said "$20." ...I said "I'll take 'um!". When we got home, my husband and I started to look through the pictures. They were mostly from the 1960's, maybe a few from the '70, and two from the '40s. There were 123 in all and believe it or not, I actually knew one of the brides .... what are the chances of that. Once again, I was meant to have these pictures.
Once at an auction I noticed a box with some old photos. Upon closer examination, you guessed it, wedding pictures. There must have been 50 or 60. I wanted to just scoop up the box and tell them that I would buy it, but we know auctions don't work like that. I made up my mind that the . photos would be mine because I would outbid everyone else (that took some of the pressure off). I was a nervous wreck (I always get like that when there's something that I want at an auction) waiting for the box to come up for bid. Finally, I bid ...someone else bid ...then I bid again ..... .'what no more bids?' .... YES! The box was mine, for $12.00!! Talk about a steal!! OK, now I could relax.
People at the auction, flea markets, antique shops know me as the 'wedding picture lady'. Sometimes the problem with that is that when they know what you're interested in, the price goes up. I let them know straight out that I won't pay much because I have so many and I can be selective. Of course, there's always that one gorgeous photograph that I can't live without and therefore don't think twice about paying more. The beauty in all of my wedding picture collection is amazing. Some of the photos are signed by the photographer and are truly works of art.
Things are really bad when you start to collect for other people. My husband Jerry, collects Boy Scout items and license plates ... my son, Eric, collects marbles, old maps, and metal globes ...and my son, Todd, collects unusual photographs (crime scene, post mortem, etc.), vintage paint-by-number, and black velvet paintings. And of course I keep my eyes open for all of those things!
Things are really bad when you start to collect for other people. My husband Jerry, collects Boy Scout items and license plates ... my son, Eric, collects marbles, old maps, and metal globes ...and my son, Todd, collects unusual photographs (crime scene, post mortem, etc.), vintage paint-by-number, and black velvet paintings. And of course I keep my eyes open for all of those things!
Thinking back, I seem to recall that my son Eric’s marble collection started when he was about 6 years old. On one particular weekend, we had ventured to one of our very rural, but huge flea market haunts and had purchased a large butter container full of marbles for him. Eric held onto the container like it was his last bowl of noodles (noodles were pretty much all he wanted to eat at that age). On our way home, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch, and of course he took the container in with him so that he could check out his find. As we stood in the restaurant waiting to be seated, Eric dropped the butter container…...Uhh!!!…was the single chorus that came out of all our mouths...the marbles rolled everywhere, scattering like cockroaches when you flick on a light. Eric looked at us and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry (as the shock dissipated, we couldn’t keep the laughter in). As luck would have it, a restaurant employee was sweeping at the time (how convenient), and without a word just started to sweep up the marbles. Before you knew it, the butter container was once again full. As we ate lunch, patrons were bringing us wayward marbles that had rolled under their tables. I’m assuming that somewhere out there this story has been told by those patrons…’Once Upon a Time, there was a little boy and a butter container of marbles….’. Those marbles were in a gumball machine in Eric’s room for a long time, but were then packed away and banished to the basement (as are most collections at one time or another). A few years ago, he resurrected his marble collection and we’ve been adding to it ever since...it’s quite extensive now.
As a very young child, my son Todd had a penchant for little plastic animals. Every time we went shopping we would buy a bag of these animals which were sold as either farm, jungle, or zoo. He had so many of them that we ended up getting a very large plastic container to store them in (we set them up for play on a black & white check bedspread). On one of our shopping trips, he noticed a bag that had teeny, tiny piglets in it and even though he already had multiples of all the other animals in the bag, he just had to have those teeny tiny piglets, and of course as a collector at heart, I thought he should have them too. Todd is an adult now, his animal collection has become that of taxidermy. His prize piece being that of a Buffalo head which he received as a gift from his father-in-law. His ‘paintings’ collection began some time ago when I was at an estate sale and found a black velvet painting right out of the ‘70s of a wide eyed girl, lifting her shirt to expose her breasts… tacky to say the least, but highly collectible (my husband always says ‘What a Mom!’). He lives in New York city, so I called him from the estate sale to ask if he would be interested in the painting….of course, he was. I ended up purchasing it for $5. and that was the beginning. On Ebay, I found an exquisite vintage ‘paint-by-number nude’. It was so well done, and the paint had acquired that beautiful old patina, I just had to have it for his collection. Three more Ebay ‘nudes’ followed soon after. Are we seeing a pattern emerge? Now tell me collecting isn’t genetic.
Awhile back, my friend Jan (another avid collector) and I stopped at an antique store in yet another rural town. Our husbands waited in the car since we pushed their ‘antiquing’ buttons to the limit. Inside was a ‘paint-by-number’ treasure trove, I bought twelve of them and one black velvet painting. Our husbands thought we were captured by pirates since we were in there for so long. I couldn’t wait to call Todd and tell him about our find. We are a family of 'Collectors'.
I've come to the conclusion that people who 'collect' are warm hearted ...wanting to be surrounded by things we love to look at. ... and possess. If that is an addiction of sorts, then so be it. ....we could all be addicted to worse.
"Hello Carole."
