PEACE

Strange and Unusual Collections

Many people hoard old, used or useless possessions. Some of these people collect anthologies; compile lists; stockpile belongings; or just simply collect articles. We all know philatelists [stamp collectors] or friends who collect such items as bottle caps [tops]. I have set out to find out some of the stranger, perhaps trivial and often amusing items that are collected throughout the world.

Will's shoe collection, for example, consists of one pair black, one pair brown and one pair sandals. However, my wife, Steve, and indeed my daughter, Hannah, have loads of pairs of shoes: a veritable collection of shoes. Not quite in the Imelda Marcos class; I believe she had over 3000 pairs of shoes.

As a child, Hannah collected metal and plastic badges. She has amassed quite a number. Will collected marbles and post cards. [Easy since my father was in the Royal Navy and sent cards from all over the world]. All these and indeed CD and DVD and vinyl collections are common, unremarkable and certainly not funny.

What led me to do this article is that I read a report by the journalist, Simon Hoggart in The Guardian in which he mentioned that he knew a man in New Zealand who collected airline sickness bags, now that is weird and we can only hope they are empty.

Barbed Wire
A man called Jesse S. James, from Maywood California; USA has collected barbed wire since 1957. He displays his specimens on panels, has catalogued them and even written a book about them. It is a collector's item itself but I am led to believe it is out of print.

Oil Rags
Even stranger is Ed Haberman of Tama, Iowa; USA who collects used oil rags. He has done this since the 1950's and has a collection totalling more than 13,000, which he has washed and stored carefully in his home. Sad to report his love of oily rags is not shared by Mrs Haberman. Are you surprised?

Banana Labels
Becky Martz collects.........wait for it banana and asparagus labels and broccoli bands. She has over 5000 banana labels.

More Strange and Unusual Collections

Tea Bags
Marcelo Strauch from Buenos Aires, Argentina has a vast collection of tea bags from all over the world.

Rum Bottles
Petr Hlousek from the Czech Republic collects labels from rum bottles and he has amassed 6383 labels from 97 different countries. Fascinatingly he has 304 unopened bottles and I am thinking of going to visit him.

Clothes Mangles
In the 1940's and 50's my mother used a mangle that was kept in the outside conservatory, this she used for wringing out wet clothing after washing. Amazingly, there's a man in Adelaide, Australia who has a collection of these mangles some of which date back to the 1800's.

Shaving Mugs
Will's barber of 30 years standing, Alan Moore, has a superb collection of shaving mugs in his shop in West Street, Portchester.

Nails
Mr Frank C. Horwath who hails from Joliet, Illinois; USA has a collection of nails which he has amassed since he was 14 years old. He reputedly has more than 15,000 of all varieties from over 40 different countries. He has a rare nail from the Islamic shrine the Dome of the Rock and another from the home of W. Ellery who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Dreams
Elizabeth Lowe, Middleton, Wisconsin; USA collects dreams. What? I hear you cry...yes dreams. Apparently each of us dreams some 1500 dreams each year so the fact that someone is assembling a collection should not be a surprise. M/s Lowe has a collection of some 2,500 dreams, which she has collected over 16 years. One of Lowe's favourite recurring dreams is her own. In it a miniature elephant frolics in her bathtub making a glorious mess. Will's recurring nightmare, as a child, was a grizzly bear chasing him across his infant school playground. As Will climbed the fence to get away he fell back into stinging nettles.  Then he woke up.  Phew.

Toothpaste
The world record for a collection of tubes of toothpaste is shared between Carsten Gutzeit from Germany and Val Kolpakov, Davenport, USA. Both have over 1000 toothpastes from some 60 countries. Strange flavours include: dry champagne and whiskey.