Collections

How many items does it take to make a collection? I used to collect Fontanini figures and buildings (think Bethlehem) and had over two hundred figures -- now that’s a collection! When we moved into an apartment, I no longer had room to display them, so I donated them to my church, which very kindly appointed me “Curator of the Creche,” allowing me to set up and take down the display at Christmas time.

I have only three hot-cast bronze horse statues by Candace M. Liddy, but I consider that a collection, too.

I have a copy of every Dortmunder novel Donald E. Westlake wrote and several of his “one-off” novels as well (“Smoke,” for example, and “Trust Me on This” and “The Ax”). I wish I my writing even approached the levels he wrote at. *sigh* I’m not sure whether that’s a collection or not.

I have copies of every book I’ve written and every short story, too. But that’s not a collection, that’s a celebration. Though I will admit to stopping by the shelves I keep them on and smiling now and then.

I have more Christmas tree ornaments than our small artificial tree can hold. Is that a collection? I think so, I love getting them out and gloating over them, remembering when and where I purchased each of them.

I have an ever-growing stack of needlework magazines and I keep buying needlework patterns. I don’t think they make a collection, however.

I have a terrific collection of hats, probably somewhere around thirty or thirty-five. I love each and every one of them. Wearing them makes me feel like a grown-up, and a little bit glamorous, and maybe a bit eccentric. I’m going to have to make a rule that I can’t buy a new hat unless I give up an old one, which would be very hard to do.

We have a small collection of framed art work: needlework, oil paintings, water colors. Not a whole lot, but enough that now and again I’ll take something down and put up something else so my eyes don’t get tired of any of it.

For some reason, I have a whole lot of purses -- more than I have pairs of shoes -- but I don’t consider them a collection; they’re just purses. Maybe that’s what makes some things a collection and others not: the gloating, the way that handling them brings strong, pleasurable memories. I gloat over my hats but not my purses.

What do you collect?

To my readers in Fargo, ND, Wolf Point and Cut Bank, MT, Spokane and Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, Sacramento, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT, look for me and my friend Tanya in your town in June. (We’re also stopping in East Glacier Park, MT, and Reno, NV, but I’m not making an appearance in either place, but will just be playing the tourist.) See my web site -- Monica-Ferris.com -- for a complete schedule.