Saturday, November 14, 2020

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- In Childhood, What Did You Save or Collect?

  Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1)  In your childhood (and into the teenage years), what did you save or collect as a hobby or interest?  Do you still have them?

2)  Tell us all about it in a blog post of your own, in comments on this blog post, or in a post on Facebook.  Be sure to link to them in a comment on this blog post.

Here's mine:

I was always collecting things from the time I was 6 or 7.  These are the things I recall:

*  Stamps.  My grandfather, Lyle Carringer, got me started in stamp collecting.  He had collected stamps for decades, and had an extensive correspondence all over the world.  He also visited the post office every week and bought sheets of US stamps to share with his friends and me.  So he had excess foreign stamps.  He bought a stamp album and gave it to me for Christmas one year, and I filled it up with what I had.  Then he took me to the stamp store downtown and I was 
*  Stamps.  My grandfather, Lyle Carringer, got me started in stamp collecting.  He had collected  hooked!  I spent some of my allowance on stamps for years, especially the commemorative stamps.  I may have the albums in storage.

* Coins.   I started collecting coins a bit later, and had a pretty good collection of the pennies, nickels dimes and quarters over time.  I think I still have them, and should give them to one of the grandchildren.

*  Baseball cards:  Baseball became a passion when I was 10 because the minor league Padres won the PCL pennant in 1954 and we went to the games on the bus.  The Padres were the Cleveland Indians triple-A farm team.  I rode my bike all over San Diego looking for baseball cards (the ones with 5 cards and a sheet of pink bubble gum) in markets and five-and-dime stores.   When we went on vacation in the 1950s, I sought out stores with cards and bought them.  I traded duplicate cards every year with my close school friends who also were into baseball cards.  I fear they were tossed out when I moved out of the house in 1968.

*  Bottle Caps.  While searching for baseball cards, I also searched for thrown-away bottle caps, and had quite a collection.  I think these were thrown out early on.

*  Radio station Top-40 surveys.  By 1958 (age 14), I was into rock and roll music, listened to the radio, and learned about surveys.  I checked the US newspaper collection at the library, and noted which stations advertised their surveys and then I wrote to them asking for a sample.  Some stations (like WLS in Chicago) put me on the mailing list.  I checked Billboard magazine every week to see what was popular nationwide.  A friend and I drove to Los Angeles and visited Capitol Records to take a tour and see if they could give us surveys.  By the early 1960s, I had over 500 different stations' surveys.  I got introduced to a survey club and eventually gave my stuff to one of the guys.

*  Maps.  Especially National Geographic maps and city street maps.  I got the street maps at the stores and gas stations, and the Chamberlain cousin had a National Geographic subscriptions and gave me the maps.   I still have boxes of these maps in storage.

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Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

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6 comments:

Campbell Kid Corner said...

Between sixth and ninth grades, I collected Beatle trading cards.

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

Here is my post about books!

https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2020/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-in.html

Lois Willis said...

Here's mine
https://loiswillis.blog/2020/11/15/sunday-afternoon-genealogy-fun-in-childhood-what-did-you-save-or-collect/

Janice M. Sellers said...

I have figured out that I did start collecting playing cards in Australia or at least on my family's cruise back to the United States, because I have a double deck of cards from Chandris Cruise Lines, the ship line we traveled on.

http://www.ancestraldiscoveries.com/2016/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-what-did.html

Liz said...

Here's mine:

https://gatapleytree.blogspot.com/2020/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-in.html

Linda Stufflebean said...

Here is mine: https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2020/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-117/