Ali McDallas, I am reading your great post on the "Catching up with my buddies!" thread (p.3), and I'm applauding those oh-so-appropriate quotes you've "collected" on collecting. I particularly was drawn to No. 6: "Obsessive Collecting: Such dedication of collectors can be all absorbing, now and then exhilarating, at times tyrannizing, and indeed, occasionally ruinous."

Or as YOU so perfectly put it: QUOTE<<Gee, and all this time I thought that's what the drugs were for!">>UNQUOTE

:D Oh, what a way you have with words, dear Dallas! And, yes, I must say some of my finest collecting moments did take place on an Oxy 'outing.' I used to haunt the antique markets around NYC and wherever I traveled, but as my pills and I became 'best friends,' my energy and I parted ways. It got lots easier to let my fingers do the walking on Ebay. At first it seemed like cheating. You type in your 'mania' and thousands of pages pop up where you can track down your "Gotta have its!" (And, may I add, how fast "Never knew about its" become "Gotta have its.") It got so that I was embarrassed as my doorman stopped me daily: "Oh Ms!...You got 'another' package." Like the Sorcerer's Apprentice, the boxes trooped in...doubling, tripling. "Where'd ya want it, lady?" Well, damned if I knew! :D No room at the inn!

What do I collect? Mostly antique dog items from around the world...figurines, old books, brooches, any dog-shaped bottles, old ads featuring dogs, planters, lamps, music boxes, jewelry, hair ornaments, frames, fans, plates, old paintings, perfume bottles, pocketbooks, clothes with dog motifs, stuffed animals, puppets, old mechanical toys, pillows, door stops, etal. I've finally narrowed the collection down to Shih Tzu or Asian breeds of that type. I have china cabinets and hutches and breakfronts. Lynn says my apt looks like an antique shop. She wants to put up a sign: "Lovely to look at, delightful to hold, but if you break it, consider it sold!"

Lynn has a super managerie of old and new frogs AND the best ski collection - we both love skiing! (Tho I laid claim to an early 1900s Dog on Skis we found in an old shop. She agreed that I saw it first! Gee - a dog on skis - it doesn't get better than that! :D ) Lynn also collects old mountaineering books that are fascinating. We have such fun going thru these tales of oddball adventurers (oh, what fun sleeping at Camp 4 in 4-week old underwear at 4 degrees below zero!) . In spite of this interest, we are definitely citified 'armchair travelers' who know that the countryside runs RAMPANT with ax murderers! (Tho, thankfully, they tend to stay away from ski resorts.)

So, between my addiction and my OCD, I was indeed on the verge of being - like Dallas's quotes - "surrounded" and "tyrannized" by my STUFF. Well....Prozac helped the OCD and Subutex is helping the addiction. I'm happy to say my "hobby" is down to a dull roar, these days. I must ALSO say tho how much I love my collection. I frequently open a china cabinet and lovingly finger a 1920's floppy stuffed dawg or a weirdly, wildly-colored 50s carnival prize spaniel or a Bakelite big-eyed, big-eared doggy brooch. The thing is, I love all my STUFF. It gives me real pleasure to see these old renditions of Man's Best Friend. So, maybe quote No. 4 applies to me: "Objects in the collectors' experience, real or imagined, allow for a magical escape into a remote and private world."

As to the connection between collection and addiction....my theory is that collectors and addicts tend to be passionate people...or, put another way....people with passions. We want to embrace life for all it has to offer....but our innate vulnerability (our tendency to wear our hearts on our sleeves) magnifies everything we "feel" and causes us to seek some means of refuge (drugs?). If we can hold onto our passions but keep them within 'control,' I believe we possess the capacity to be the happiest people in the world -- because we have all the "raw materials" that make for a life of joie de vivre.
TwinAlice

P.S. Oh, I forgot to mention that I also collect books on Collecting. Uh-huh...

Hi AliceAlice ;),

Wow, I want to go shopping in your apartment! It sounds like you have some awesome things! I would love to see what your hutches contain! I need a mirrored, lighted hutch for my glassware, but now that money is just something, I haven't found one yet, because it, too, would have to be of the antique or art deco kind! Your "stuff" is the same kind of stuff I love to handle, seek out at antique malls, and yes, hit on eBay for!

Didn't you love doing a day of eBay? Ah, I remember so well how after popping a few pills, and getting settled in at the computer and then onto eBay I'd go...and with pain pills, I could sit comfortably for HOURS searching for exactly what you so perfectly described as the "never knew about its" that evolved into the "gotta have its!" I so understand what you mean...ah, I should have known you were an eBayer. I have bought so many dishes on eBay, I can't begin to count, and what a perfect cover it became for when my "other" deliveries from the onlines would come..."Mom, UPS is here!" "Thanks, honey, that's my eBay stuff! And no, you can't see it until I do...I'm the collector remember? You say you hate my dishes!" Yes, I had the FedEx and UPS guys wondering what the heck it was I was doing here...although after a long day of eBay and no work and about 18 vicodins, I'd still be in my robe, unshowered and looking pretty scraggly at times they'd ring my bell, so I'm sure they thought I was some kind of shut-in with an incurable disease who frittered her time away on eBay...LOL!

I am very intrigued about your collections--both yours and Lynns. I want to see them! You two--with your eclectic things and wiley ways "Hey big boy, want to come up and see my Shih Tzu etchings, or my dog on skis?" I only bring him out for special someone...", true New Yorkers, I think?! I was thinking about the sayings I jotted down about the collecting and wondering about the personality traits the author portrayed collectors as having. It was surprising to see the words moody, depressed, and alone as adjectives befitting of a collector! I always put more fun, engaging, eclectic, quirky, and cool even, traits on collectors...so it was interesting to see and think about this complete opposite description. The one quote about the collections being replacements for the baby's transition object (pacifier, blankie), well I started to recall the collections of my youth--which I still have with me (funny how some things survive so many years of moving and lifestyle changes--I mean, I have miniature animals I've drug around with me for almost 40 years! How could they survive? All I know is they surely were important to me then--and now). The things I collected as an 8-13 year old were often more typical: miniature animals--wood, porcelain, bronze, anything as long as it was an animal and small; seashells...I have a box I bought for one dollar when I was about 11 in a museum in Minnesota that has these shells glued down in it and the oceans/countries they came from...I've loved that box for so long. I'm trying to think of a way to display it without it getting..."b r o k e n," gasp! The worst word in the world for a collector to hear :eek:! Then there are the rocks, stuffed animals, horses, toys like marbles, tiddlywinks, and jacks, but always back to the miniature things...something about tiny, little statues and furniture replicas and just the smaller-the-better kinds of things.

What else do I collect beyond the depression & carnival glass and 40s-60s kitchenware I already mentioned? I love costume and vintage jewelry--yes, brooches and stick pins! LOL!! (have you ever seen the "hair brooches?" You'd put a lock of your child's or loved one's hair inside the brooch and it would be sealed in there--they are one of my favorites :)), and am working on adding to that as well as some vintage clothing & lace.

Some of the things I have are collections I've inherited from people in my family. My brother collected comic books and adult fantasy magazines--Heavy Metal; Tales from the Crypt, Creepy and Eerie; Conan the Barbarian; Kull the Conqueror, things like that. I've trunks and boxes and boxes of them, most of them in plastic slipcovers. He would get lost in his magical world of busty fantastical sword-weilding "Xenas!" From my mother I have many, many tins of old buttons. I suppose there was a practical purpose for that, but I love these buttons! I can remember some of the clothes she had that they came off of, and buttons of the 30s and 40s are way cooler than our standard buttons of the 90s and the milennium! I've put them in jars, I've put them in shadowboxes and on the wall and I've still got more. I would play and sort and arrange and rearrange those buttons when I was young for hours...so comics, buttons, old dishes, costume jewelry, horses and miniature objects and animals fill corners and shelves and cupboards and boxes of my house, and I--like you--love my stuff :). In many ways, it reflects who we are--our personalities, as well as our interests. I never thought of collecting as much more than a quirky pasttime until I checked out that collection of tobacco pipes! What a difference a day's outing can make!

I couldn't agree MORE with your thoughts on the collection/addiction theory. I think there is some OCD that goes along with the extreme collector. Now I don't think I woud ever cash out my IRA for a set of "Della Robia" dishes, but I can understand that last quote, about collecting being almost ruinous, and how for those totally into their collections to the point of doing crazy things in order to get "the missing piece," well, there is a difference and I am happy to say that as my drug addiction gets more and more under control, so does my spontaneous eBay shopping days as well as spending waaaay too much on something just because it was the perfect color and beautiful and I wanted to be its owner. And I feel that magical feeling described in #4 also when I get my things down, spread them out, hold an old tiny porcelain bear cub and remember the comfort and pleasure it brought me when I was young and although I no longer build tiny homes for my tiny animals, I do fantasize about them scattering around in those magical, mystical places where only bears and hippos and camels and skunks could congregate together! Oh, there are many collecting and eBay stories I would love to share. If we all were ever to run into each other, we would certainly do what you eluded to in closing down the restaurant and laughing our heads off. So much in common--who'd have thunk it?!

Hey, I'm reminded that tonight is "Antique Roadshow" night, isn't it? Do any of you watch that? I love it, yet I think some of it is kind of "staged." The pony-tailed "toy guy," and the blonde Ken-doll "furniture twins" are among my favorite "experts" on that show. It's my fantasy to be one of those who finds something for a few dollars somewhere and it turns out to be worth half a mill! Yep, that's my retirement goal, as I doubt Pyrex bowls in olive green with white polka dots, or a set of "swanky swigs" are going to do it...LOL!

Let me know if you're a fan of those kinds of shows, and I hope to hear from the others on their collections and thoughts on any connection between our drug addictions and our addictions to owning certain, specific objects. Sara, Lisa, CMom, Marich, Ellnyc, GGrl, Michelle, c'mon, I know you've got "stuff!" Anyone else whom I haven't met or who I left out, it would be so cool to hear about your passions...

Talk to you all later!
Dallas Alice

I love this post..you got that right..
and all that you've collected...(a poem)...
Here goes..
Started in my early 20s-mmm..1/4 century ago..
Fiestaware/50s-70s..modern/deco kitchware..diner memorabilia-signs/posters/coca cola-(old) cooler..signs/clocks/lots of old records-vintage clothing-(old mod pucci coats/dresses)-noguchi table/chair-and my bedroom is the odd duck-ancient brass/iron bed-i blasted/polished painted-old chests-old wicker/quilts-and DOG FIGUREINES..my lil loves..books/beatles collection..
Im a collector..hahaha..
I got a storage space and put lots of stuff away-cos this apt-was so cool/spacious-i wanted to go-sparse..hilarious..but its way more than ever before.
My mom owns a antique shop-shes also a wild collector-turned shop owner.
So- i shop at moms-great-glassware..vintage table linens-shabby chic stuff-
Ill be right back..
ggrl

Collecting as detailed by your posts is not an addiction. It is a form of OCD called "hoarding" and many people in my family have it. Everyone knows someone that suffers from OCD hoarding, but people hide their secret. They usually will not let you into their house because their is no room for anything and they are ashamed. Collectors that keep valuable items are not suffering from OCD hoarding. They are considered normal because they are amassing "money" in the form of artwork, gems, recordings, antiques. Medications usually do not help a "hoarder". They need behavior modification help if they can realize they have a problem.

I am a collector, also. I collect dolls, Snowbabies, Christopher Radko Christmas ornaments, and the biggie for me - shoes and pocketbooks!! My hubby just converted one of our spare bedrooms into a closet for me with a wall of shelves for bags and two walls of floor to ceiling shelves for shoes. He put in three rolling wardrobe racks, a vanity table with a large mirror and lights, a lingerie chest, and a chaise lounge. It is a dream come true and I am so glad I am sober and have the energy to get it all in order. I have wanted to do this project for a while but you know how that goes - I
was either high or dope sick and had zero motivation. It feels fabulous to complete a project and to enjoy it. Our next thing is taking another spare bedroom and making him a "game room" for all of his PS2 and Xbox paraphernalia. We have it painted so now we're waiting on a couch and loveseat and he'll be good to go. I'm thrilled that he and his cronies will have a place to go when they get on a Tiger Woods 2005 marathon other than my den. They have been known to play for an entire Saturday!!