DO YOU COLLECT?

Everyone collects something. For me, it’s items that are worth very little. I enjoy collecting Hawaiian prints, buttons, cameras and newspaper items.

My interest in collecting started as a child. My grandmother was a talented seamstress and made almost all of my clothes. She never threw a button away. When a garment was worn out, the buttons were taken off and used on a new garment.

I spent many happy hours at her house sorting through the jars of buttons. I’m sure she was keeping me entertained but I thought that I was looking through treasure. I’d sort the more glamorous and shiny ones and then I’d group matching ones. When she died my aunt gave me a jar of her buttons and some of them I remembered from childhood. I guess she never made a dress they’d look just right on.

I also enjoy collecting old cameras. Friends and family often find them at yard sales and flea markets and send them to me. I always like to find another font in lead newspaper type. From years of working in the newspaper business I’ve come to love hearing the press run and the smell of newsprint.

Sid and I collect unusual bottles. A trip a while back to the liquor store was funny. I walked in looking around and a gentleman there asked if he could help me. I told him I was looking for a red bottle. “What type wine?” he asked. I told him it didn’t matter, it could even be hard liquor, but I wanted a good-looking bottle, as cheap as possible. He stood for a moment staring at me until I explained that I needed a cool red bottle for our bottle tree. I guess relieved that I was not buying cheap, crappy liquor for someone, he promptly directed me to a nice red bottle with some kind of wine in it. I bought several, poured the wine down the drain and decorated our tree.