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Stickers, Smurfs, and Unicorns

One of my part-time jobs is to write a quarterly article for our city magazine. My column is listed under “Antiques” and I write about anything from Richmonder’s collections, tips on identifying and purchasing antiques, and on historic homes and buildings in our area. It’s a fun column and the magazine pays well (which helps when you’re trapped in the realm of Midlist). One day, a woman I was interviewing asked me how I got into antiques in the first place. I began to tell her my canned answer about how my parents and grandparents were “antiquers”, but she interrupted by saying, “No. I mean, what was your first collection.

Here are the first three things I remember collecting:

1. Stickers. Oh, they were big in the 70’s. I especially liked the “puffy” stickers, those with rainbows, Smurfs, or glitter. If a sticker had “googly eyes” then it was even cooler.

2. And speaking of Smurfs, they were my second collection. I preferred the figurines, but I also liked Smurf shoelaces. That way, I really stood out at the roller skate ring.

3. Last, but never least, I had a chair filled with stuffed unicorns. I believe it was the movie Legend starring Tom Cruise and Jennifer Connelly that initiated my unicorn obsession. I fantasized that if I gathered enough of them, I might one day be transported to a beautiful forest where I would run about in a gorgeous silver dress as fairy dust flew about me in a whirlwind and a gorgeous boy or satyr or whatever chased after me. The boy was never important. The dress, the fairy dust, and reaching out to touch the unicorn were.

There you have it: my sophisticated beginnings as a collector. How about you? Did you squirrel anything away when you were a kid?

8 Responses to “Stickers, Smurfs, and Unicorns”

I was an avid sticker collector, too. I even had a sticker pen pal!

Then it was high school obsession with Coca Cola. I even collected the labels from the bottles in an (idiotic?) attempt to wallpaper one wall in my room.

Now I have my fledgling collection of Willow statues. I will not buy them for myself, they are gifts. Ones that hold a boatload of sentimental value.

by debbie on November 10th, 2007 at 8:54 am
I had a sticker collection, too! I loved the iridescent ones. And in high school I had a huge dinosaur collection. Love them! Nowadays I have some Boyd’s Bear figurines, some Precious Moments, and I went through a snowman phase not long ago. Nothing really “antiquey” but maybe some day!

by Heather on November 10th, 2007 at 11:48 am
Tea cards - the little cards that came free in each packet of tea one bought.
Cigarette cards - found only in antique shops but issued from roughly late nineteenth century up to the outbreak of the Second World War. I gave all my cards away to charity when I went into religious life, but kept one pre-first world war set.
Buttons
Stickers - the more humorous or unusual, the better.

As an adult, rubber stamps. Principal use, stamping pictures or images into children’s books when they had done good work in school.

I ought not to get even started on the subject of children’s books…

by Rudolf on November 10th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Hey JB! I knew there was a reason I liked you! I loved unicorns, stickers and Smurfs….still do actually. I used to have a Smurfette stamp when I was in Jr. High. I always loved the Smurfs. Or maybe I just like saying the word “smurf” You have to admit, it IS a fun word.

The things I collect haven’t really changed since I was a kid. Actually, I never did really collect anything as a kid…unless you count bugs…I had a pretty decent bug collection….had cigar boxes of them, books, and a microscope. I didn’t really start collecting anything until Jr. High. I’ve got a pretty decent sized unicorn collection…I even entered a store one time and the very first thing I saw was a unicorn….I thought that was strange. It was like it was waiting for me. I’ve also always collected stickers. Just found 2 stationery boxes full of stickers I know I’ll never use, but I can’t seem to part with them. Although there are some I might give my nephews. I also collect dolphins, autographs (My first was Emma Samms from GH), and Shirley Temple stuff (1 mug set, 1 music box set, and 2 sets of plates–can’t get into the dolls or figurines though…they don’t look like her to me). I had a teacher in high school who liked the puffy stickers like you. He had a whole wall full of them…I used to wonder what would happen to them if they ever moved him to another room. And if you can call books as a collection, I collect them, too…I try to get every book by certain authors. I also like to collect out of print records by my favorite artists and CD’s of my favorite current singers. And pens….I LOVE pens. I have more than I will ever use at the moment, but I still collect them anyway…You never know when you will find one that will write better than the others you have. I still have one that i never used because I love the color of the ink and finding the color ink that is in it is pretty much impossible.

by Traci on November 11th, 2007 at 3:00 am
You all should have come to my church yesterday. We had 2 people from Skinner, here in Boston, do an “Antiques Roadshow” fundraising event. It was so much fun even without the cameras!

by debbie on November 11th, 2007 at 8:38 am
I didn’t really have a collection of anything, beside books to read, when my friend started bringing home tiny boxes from her trips around the states. I’d get a little bamboo box from Chinatown in San Francisco, a small wooden box made in Williamsburg, a round lidded box made from soapstone, etc. As time went on, my relatives also started giving me boxes. I have two my son-in-law got while he was in Korea and then later in Saudi Arabia. I have a lovely china music box my monther gave me a few years ago. I have many little boxes. And that friend - she just brought me a lovely lavender beaded box from her last trip to Minnesota.

by Jody on November 12th, 2007 at 11:02 am
You mean apart from books? Seashells. There’s something about looking for the “perfect” shell, year after year. I still do it–whenever I’m at a beach, I’m not admiring the lovely views, I’m looking at my feet and stuffing shells in all my pockets (why is it I never remember to take a baggie?).

by Sheila Connolly on November 12th, 2007 at 11:09 am
I’m with Sheila on this one. I love seashells. I also never remember to bring something to put them in. I just went to Ocean City, Maryland (for the first time) with my hubby, daughter and her fiance. My daughter has been trying to get me down there for the last 7 years. I hate when work interferes with life…. Anywho, my daughter found the most wonderful shell!! Had a hole at the top already- just made for a necklace (I make jewelry) I put it in my pocket, kept it safe the whole day AND put it through the laundry…..Found little bits and pieces all over the inside of the washer. SOB..

by Ealasaid Cameron on November 20th, 2007 at 6:54 am

Stickers, Smurfs, and Unicorns

8 Responses to “Stickers, Smurfs, and Unicorns”

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