I wandered through the antiques and collectibles show today at Sycamore Mall in Iowa City asking people what they collect. The people I talked with collected cool things, like "Rolling Stone" magazine covers, antique jewelry and records.
What do I collect? Nothing. Nothing on purpose, anyway, but people have made me collect things.
How, you wonder, could a person accidentally collect something?
Easy. People hear you like something - magnets, bells, whatever - and that's what you get as a gift every year for your birthday or Christmas.
It has happened to me twice.
First, I found myself collecting cats. It all started in grade school. I liked real cats, and we always had two or three as pets on the farm. I named them goofy things like Bootsie, Chocolate Marshmallow, Mr. Pesky and Popcorn, put them in my dolls' play pen was even kind enough to give their whiskers a trim until my dad told me that wasn't such a good idea.
My grandparents knew I was fond of the farm cats, and they collected antiques. So, each time they came across something cat-related at a flea market, garage sale or auction, they bought it for me. Other people caught on, and before I knew it, I had cat stuffed animals, cat clothes cat figurines and cat calendars. Cat everything.
More recently, it was frogs. I went through a phase of liking frogs around age 17 or 18 and, I guess for the heck of it, got a small frog tattoo on my foot. (So, yeah, I can see why people felt compelled to buy me frog stuff, but I never intended to start a frog collection!) It was too late, though. Word got out that I liked frogs, and I got frog everything. Frog pajamas. Frog towels. A frog umbrella. A frog clock. A frog water fountain. Truth be told, I'm still getting frog stuff.
I'm not complaining, here. I still have the cat collection somewhere at my parents' house, and I'd never get rid of it because the cats remind me of my grandma, who passed away when I was still in elementary school. As for the frogs, I know that people are putting thought into the gift, so I don't mind.
I'm just pointing out an amusing phenomenon. I'm not the only person who's experienced it. I talked with a co-worker whose friends and relatives bombarded her with horse stuff. And last year, around Christmas, I talked with someone whose relative gave her dozens of nativity sets.
Check out Monday's Gazette to see what other young adults collect (hopefully on purpose).
Stay tuned next week, when I'll be at the "Creepy Campus Crawl" at the University of Iowa. At the Old Capitol Museum, you can make scary postcards and hear ghost stories. At the Museum of Natural History, you can learn about nocturnal creatures and take spooky tours. At the Department of Geoscience, you can watch movies about real-life beasts, the end of the world or "the land that time forgot." If you want to go, it's from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday. For details, call the Old Capitol Museum at (319) 335-3591, the Museum of Natural History at (319) 335-0606 or the Paleontology Lab at (319) 335-1822.
Hope to see you there!