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Discover Mid-America — January 2006

What’s in a collection

A recent Antique Trader devoted a page to a special show that was to take place in Harrisburg, PA called “ALL DAIRY, ALL DAY.”

The title in itself was intriguing. Never having had a dairy (We had a cow/calf operation.), this area of collecting never crossed my mind. This is the only known show of its kind in the United States. It’s been going on for eight years and, according to the reporter, it keeps getting better all the time.

One might wonder what would be collectible in the dairy business? Surprisingly, there is a great multitude of butter, cheese, advertising and other sideline things that go with the dairy business. I have had crocks with cheese company advertising outside and inside. There are those people who have collected old one-pound butter boxes from their home states. There has been a huge market in milk bottles until the reproductions started fooling people. Then that came to a halt.

Anyone who has lived in a rural area knows that there are pieces of equipment that go with the various farm jobs. This show evidently has had some really wonderful things that make wonderful exhibits. At the September show, which featured the Ayrshire breed, a man from Belleville, PA brought a life-size Ayrshire model cow to show. Years ago the Farm Journal always had a cartoon featuring Ada, The Ayrshire, so this brought back chuckles of this cow’s past antics.

Long ago, before computers were mainstream, we could go to auctions around here and find all kinds of neat and unusual things that could go into collections. At one estate sale, held by the executor bank, were the belongings of a long-ago retired dentist. Why his things intrigued me, I do not know. But in that sale we bought a number of things from the dental field that resold quite quickly.

The copper box where the tools were sterilized went as a Christmas present to a lady’s dentist brother. She was going to use it as a planter instead of a sanitizer. But the most interesting part of that collection was the collection of teeth samples. These were mounted and numbered. Knowing what dentists use now to color match one’s teeth, this might have been the original use. Not exactly a coffee table collection, but of interest to those who have followed the changes in their profession.

Another time, same type of auction, we bought a number of obstetric tools. A German doctor friend had quite a chuckle as he examined the speculums. He noted that one was for a young lady, the next for an average woman, and the last one “for a vedy lahje voman.” He really laughed at that description.

Our local firehouse has a small collection of things that firemen have used in the last seventy-five years. As small towns had volunteer firemen, looking for collectibles in this area, plus lack of money, was not much of an option. Now that we have hired firemen and women of varied backgrounds, some of them have decided to collect to display at the firehouse. One fellow who has since moved away from here did not collect the actual items but collected toys that had to do with the fighting of fires. It was quite a neat assortment of old and newer trucks, plugs and hats.

Many collectors now do not have the opportunity to hit auctions as we did years ago, but the electronic age has put many things on the market from all over the world that can add greatly to a collection. The bidding might be fierce, but on the other hand, if you collect things about outdoor toilets (We had a customer in Houston that did.), you might find it easier to get your collectible cheaply.

I did ask that collector why outdoor toilets? And he said that they were disappearing and he thought that they should be remembered! His wife absolutely would not let the donated two-holer seat come in the house!

Norma Crews is a native Texan, graduate of Texas Tech, former teacher and rancher, mother of three grown sons and six grandchildren, and raised in South Texas on a ranch as a member of two pioneer families.

Upon retiring from teaching and ranching, she and her husband James became pickers for large Texas shops, before branching into doing shows for a number of years in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. She currently resides in Neosho, MO.

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