Building a collection

[kellyrfineman]

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to build up a collection of something without being fully aware how big it's getting? In my grandmother's case, it was owls. Someone gave her something owl-shaped once, and she said she liked it, so everyone gave her owls all the time: jewelry, salt & pepper shakers, dish towels, bric-a-brac. You name it, she

Comments

did it sneak up on you?

[slatts]

I had to put a moratorium on all things Beatles, Bruce Lee and Jack Daniels, once. I'm like some "dads" --difficult to buy gifts for-- and those seem to be categories of my interests. But it became too much.

I recently opened the door to "Beatles stuff" again -- but that's it!

Re: did it sneak up on you?

[kellyrfineman]

Cool! Yeah - I'm not trying to encourage folks to give me gnomes because they will quickly overrun the house, I think. For a while, I collected salt & pepper shakers, but people started giving them to me in droves - and they were so not in keeping with what I was trying to put together, that I called the whole thing off!

[christy_lenzi]

The closest thing I have to a collection is that sometimes I pick contraband flowers and press them in books. So there are stolen flowers in almost every thick book we own. Last time, I was in my car, ordering at the McDonald's drive thru. As I ordered, I opened the door and plucked one of their lovely orange California poppies. It's In my Atlas of Ancient America. Shh.

[kellyrfineman]

That is subversive and quirky and kinda neat. Also, the sort of thing one should have a character in a book do, I think.

[p_sunshine]

Sailboats! I bought a glass one a few years ago, and then relatives just started sending me more as gifts. I don't have any room to display them right now, so they're just sitting in a box. :(
And books, of course. =)

[kellyrfineman]

The books are such a challenge to deal with. Although I dealt with one whole stack of them today by putting some away and putting some in a give-them-away pile.

[annemariepace]

Rejection letters.

[kellyrfineman]

I hear you on that one. Although I know that many of them are almost-acceptance letters.

re: collections

[anonymous]

Do we have the same grandmother?? Mine got owls by the dozens too (some, alas, from me). We counted nearly 200 in the living room alone. She was a Chi Omega, which is where the owl thing got started.

But me, no. I kind of wish I were identified in some way with something, but only my mother likes to give me chicken stuff (with the advent of our small flock last autumn). We'll have to see if it catches on. I am not the collecting personality -- unless you count assorted random items that I can't get rid of because I might need it someday . . .

Re: collections

[kellyrfineman]

I definitely contributed to my grandmother's owl collection as a kid. Poor Nana.

I have an aunt who is a collecting personality who collects commemorative teaspoons and plates and thimbles and dolls and, well, all sorts of things. I am not of that ilk.