My family has a wide variety of interests….one is collecting…nothing big or serious like gold statues or Faberge eggs. They collect fun, inexpensive items that remind them of special people and places.
My Grandma Isabelle liked to collect thimbles. When I traveled for business I would find her a thimble with pictures of the city I was in and send it to her. She had quite a few. My Grandpa made her a frame with pegs so she could display her collection on the wall.
My mom collected coffee mugs in a similar fashion until she cried “Uncle! Don’t bring me anymore mugs!”
Her dining room wall was full. We each have a favorite when we visit. I like the blueberry mug the best. She has a mug that looks like it’s been cut in two with the saying “I’ll only have half a cup!”
In my youth I gave a short-lived attempt at collecting matchbook covers until my godmother misunderstood and gave me tons of the same matchbook over and over. She was thinking volume, not variety.
My brother Gary was a serious collector of beer cans. Some unopened and most just the can, not the contents. He had them in a display on the wall of his bedroom. I am guessing there are more than 200 cans in this collection. Even Billy Beer, if anyone remembers President Carter’s entrepreneurial brother. While visiting my parents this summer they gave this collection to my son Jack. We need to take some time and go through it to see what we have. That will be a fun project although I am not too excited to have 200 beer cans line my son’s walls. Maybe he will use the sale of some of the cans to fund his college savings, which would be a plus.
My mom thought at one time she would build a valuable collection of beanie babies. These little guys are as cute as can be but I am not sure they will ever amount to as much as people were told. I am still happy she did it. I had fun going through the McDonald’s drive through time and time again to build a collection for each of her nine grandchildren. It wasn’t until the end I realized I could just buy milk and get the collection on sale. I had been buying kids’ meals for the entire neighborhood!
Because some women collect shoes or earrings or like my friend that will spend hours at the beach collecting sea glass, I thought I should start collect something. recently found a 1939 Lincoln wheat penny in my change purse. This is the year my dad was born. He turned 75 last week. When he grows a beard he resembles
Abe” so I saw this as my sign that I should start collecting wheat pennies.
My only rule is that I cannot “buy” a wheat penny. I have to find it or receive it as a gift. I went through every penny in the house and I came up with six more wheat pennies ranging from 1944 to 1957. I decided to tape the 1939 penny in my dad’s birthday card so I now have a collection of six pennies! Hey, it’s a start. I even bought 100 little official penny holders so I can keep them organized. According to Google each penny is worth about a nickel so I have a collection valued at a whopping 30 cents! My retirement fund is well on its way!
Collect things you love, that are authentic to you, then your house becomes your story.
Erin Flett
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
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