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Collections...

Post about your hobbies that aren't elsewhere on the forum. Sub forums will be added as needed.
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BrokenolMarine
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Collections...

Post by BrokenolMarine » Fri Dec 15, 2017 10:33 am

On another forum, a member put up a post seeking postcards for the son's class project. :) As many states as the son can obtain, is one goal. Then as many postcards as the class can gather by the deadline. 8-) Of Course I was in... you have Virginia covered. It was simple. You had to mail the postcard so it had the postmark from the state. You had to write at least one fact about your state on the postcard, and it had to be addressed to the student. :P Easy Peasy.. Right?

So, the wife and I both looked for a week, to pick up a post card. :roll: Two drug stores, Walmart, Two Pharmacies with hobby and notions departments. :twisted: What the heck? No postcards. I can remember when there were postcards in rotary racks beside every cash register in every store. 10 cents to 50 cents depending on how fancy they got. :roll: Then it dawned on me... email. Email killed post cards. Hardly anyone sends postcards anymore unless your doctor or dentist is reminding you of your appointment. You'll find postcards in the Touristy areas and some folks will drop those in the mail, to rub your nose in the fact that they are there and you aren't, but ... mostly, they take selfies and send those these days.

I went home and pulled out the rubbermaid tub with my old, actually developed pics that I had scanned, stored in it. There I found a stack of my postcards from the military. I popped out a card that was a souvenir, never been used, and sent that. It got me to thinking about my collections over the years. I used to collect postcards as a kid... , I collected postcards myself that were sent from all over.

My mom lost them in a move and I was devastated. I had had the cards for years. I could remember sitting on my bed in the evenings and going thru the deck, looking at each card and reliving when the card came, who sent it and the circumstances surrounding their trip when they did. I would reread the short messages they had written and try and remember what we had been doing as a family when the card had arrived. Time travel is possible, just close your eyes.

Those blank cards were special as well, because I bought those with my spending money on family trips. My sister bought candy, gone in minutes. I bought postcards, lasting memories of trips to historic sites, theme parks, or family events. The blank cards could take me back to the long car rides, the games in the car, the dinners on the road, and the family fun.

I saw a movie once, Danny Davito was in it. "Throw Mama from the Train." In the movie, he talks about "his coin collection, his coin collection." all thru the movie. When you finally see this priceless coin collection, it's a small box, and it contains a small amount of pocket change. Billy Crystal has a fit and tells him they are just coins.

"NO..." says Danny..."You don't understand."
"I got this penny when Dad and I went to the Zoo."
"This Nickle in change when we got Ice Cream.."
Davito's dad had died, the coins were his only connection, his touchstone.

Collections are more than the things in them... they are also the memories we gather as we build them.

My father is in his 80s and has been a great golfer all his life, playing well into his late 70s. He has played the AM side of ProAm Tourneys with some greats, and hit two hole in ones on a great course in Pensacola with witnesses. He has the plaques to prove it. A brain tumor and arthritis have taken that love away from him. These days he sits in HIS den, and watches golf on his 72" plasma television. Along the wall, stand six or seven golf bags, all high end and all filled with the various club sets he has used on top courses up and down the east coast.

"Your mother says I should sell my clubs." he said. "She just doesn't understand."
He points to the first bag, "That driver... I hit the sweetest drive on 14 back in 89 when playing with Bob and John..." He shows the angle of the drop with arthritic hands. He points to another bag. "That long putter over there is outlawed now, but I dropped a long putt with that thing in 93... it was Soooo slow to fall. Priceless." He makes a TOK sound with his cheek and laughs. "Son," he looks a bit sad now, "those bags contain my memories, a lifetime of accomplishment. How could I sell them?" :roll:

"I'll talk to her dad."

He still has his bags. :P
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Firearmfanatic
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Re: Collections

Post by Firearmfanatic » Fri Oct 05, 2018 8:46 am

I agree with you on the post cards. It's amazing how much the things of today are rapidly erasing the history of the past. For crying out loud you can barely even find a keychain as a souvineer anymore. I too remember when they had sections at the stores where they sold t-shirts, coffee cups, shot glasses, one thing that's really old school as souvineers here in Arizona is where they used to have real scorpions or tarantulas (not live of course) in that little snow globe looking thing....you can barely find those things anywhere now. One thing i love to do is build plastic model airplanes. Revell, Monogram..ect and within the last 12 year's there's only 2 hobby shops left. Im currently getting ready the build my B-17 (Memphis Belle) in a 1/48 scale. It's so sad that building model planes and cars are slowly going away. Alot of people now all want to buy their models painted and put together already. Just like with the old radio control planes. You had cut and put the balsa wood together and put the heat shrink skin wrap. Now a lot of people don't want to take the time make it a true hobby out of it anymore. A lot of people now are just too impatient now a days for stuff like this. They all complain that it takes too long and it's too difficult to put together. I just think it's so sad that a lot of collections and things are slowly disappearing that is a big part of American history. The kids in the next 10-15 years from now probably won't even know what a post card is if you asked them.
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Mags
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Re: Collections...

Post by Mags » Fri Oct 05, 2018 11:32 am

Another example. Kids today recognize a rotary phone for what it is, but don't know how to use one. Today its push buttons and swipes.
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Firearmfanatic
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Re: Collections...

Post by Firearmfanatic » Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:16 pm

With all these new gadgets coming out now. Im really starting to begin to feel like an old timer
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