Collections and Collectables
“Just Thinking"
Last week, I had coffee with my friend Tony. He's one of the loyal readers of my Just Thinking articles and often sends me a note whenever I post something he finds relatable. As I tell most people who comment on my writing, the hardest part of putting together these weekly pieces isn't the writing itself, it's coming up with a fresh topic every week.
While we were talking, Tony mentioned his baseball hat collection and said, there's your next newsletter topic, the things that people collect. Tony then told me about a friend who collects Christmas Stockings from thrift stores. Now that's a pretty unique hobby, maybe not quite as unique as collecting fingernail clippings or empty toothpaste tubes, but unique no doubt.
It seems that we all have a collection of some sort or another, for some, its baseball cards, stamps, coins, match books, hotel keys, dolls or vinyl records. Others collect coffee mugs from places they've visited, refrigerator magnets, vintage toys, artwork, or sports memorabilia. Some collections are worth thousands of dollars, while others have little monetary value but are loaded with sentimental value.
Every collection has a story, how it started, what it means and why it is important to you. It can start with a gift, a childhood memory, a hobby, or a personal connection, one item becomes two, two become ten, and before long, what began as a simple interest has grown into a collection. They seem to say something about who we are, they reflect our interests, our memories, and sometimes even our personalities. A collection can remind us of where we've been, what we enjoyed as kids, or the people who gave us those special items along the way.
Spending the better part of last year cleaning out the house on Talbert Street really highlighted the different collections that my father had. He was not a serious, catalog-every-item, display-case kind of collector, but someone who developed a genuine affection for certain things and quietly accumulated them over the years.
One of his lifelong passions was model trains. He had appreciated them since he was a young boy, and during the cleanup we found his childhood train set tucked away in the garage. Alongside that was the collection he had spent the last forty years building, featuring several beautiful Lionel engines and countless pieces, tracks, cars and towns.
Several years ago, Dad was having dinner at a restaurant in South City when he noticed Neil Young sitting nearby. Dad approached the rock star, and you could see that Young was bracing himself for yet another fan interruption. Dad said Mr. Young, I’m sorry to bother you, but I just wanted to thank you for helping save Lionel. Instantly, the conversation changed. Neil Young, a lifelong train enthusiast and former minority owner of Lionel, lit up, and what Dad thought would be a brief exchange turned into a fifteen-minute conversation about trains. Dad came back from that dinner saying, that Neil Young is a nice guy.
Then there was his Playboy collection. I can personally verify that it went back at least to the early 1970s, and, interestingly enough, the newer issues seemed to be in much better condition than the older ones. Dad always insisted he kept them for the articles; I took him at his word.
He also had stacks of National Geographic magazines; there were hundreds of them filling shelves and boxes. Looking back, it explains a lot about why Dad seemed to know a little bit about everything, history, geography, science, wildlife, or some faraway place.
He owned hundreds of VHS tapes, particularly Westerns and Disney movies. There were Goofy statues, figurines, artwork, and just about anything else featuring his favorite Disney character. Then there was Coca-Cola, memorabilia, signs, collectibles, promotional items, and decorative pieces including his vintage Coke dispenser.
Through this process, I came to get some understanding as to how collections like my Dad’s grow. As we get older, we buy the things that we enjoy, our friends and family notice. They see those interests and begin adding to them with gifts, souvenirs, and little treasures that they think that we'll appreciate.
Some collections become legendary. Bill Harrah collected more than 1,400 automobiles. Walt Disney collected trains. Jay Leno collected cars. My Dad's collections weren't really about the trains, the magazines, the movies, or even the memorabilia. They were a reflection of the things that captured his imagination, brought him joy, and connected him to the world around him. And in many ways, they helped tell the story of who he was.
Let me know what you think.
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