Of course, this post is about something I've decided to still keep - my button collection. I took pictures of a few - the box I found contains 154, which is by far the bulk of my collection. I used to have all of them hanging on my wall, pinned to a large piece of posterboard. Now, as you see some of these buttons, they may not seem all that strange to you until you consider that I collected most of them before the 8th grade, and the box has remained relatively untouched since then.
Without further ado, here they are:
Ok, I'm not going to argue about my political views when I was 14, because I don't think I had any. I only got these because I was a button collector.
This was taken on my high school graduation cruise... my wife asked if it was my graduation from the 8th grade, because we look so young. Nope, high school graduation.
The vacant look in my eyes is probably due to the fact that I was on night 6 of staying up 7 days straight... I went home and slept about 14 hours.
When my sister was in high school, we had a Japanese exchange student stay with us for several weeks - Yukari Kawamoto. Then, the next year, my sister went to Japan as an exchange student, where she lived with the Takahashis.
Turns out they're EXTREMELY wealthy, and the daughter, Emi, has maintained contact with most of our family over the years since - visiting several times, on the first such visit, she brought her whole family and her brother, Naokazu, gave me this button, and a Tokyo Giants signed baseball (no, I don't remember who signed it).
Not sure where I got this button, but I have found several occasions to wear it over the years.
Once again, I think I was 8 when I got this button, so I'm not trying to make a political statement. We had a guest pastor from Namibia give a sermon at our church, and I received this from him. What I remember most about him was telling how cows were worshipped as deities in Namibia, and so he always did a double take when in the states and he heard someone say, "Holy cow!" - he would respond "Where?"
I have no idea.
I was 11 when I bought this. I wondered for years why the woman who sold it to me looked at me so strangely.
I'm seeing a trend in political buttons - I also have some buttons from politicians who ran successful campaigns, and they show no signs of rust. Despite my small sample size, I am forced to draw the conclusion that if one wishes to win an office, it goes a long way to spend the extra money to get high quality campaign buttons.
This button is pretty old - I'm not sure how much it's worth, but I believe it's 40+ years old. It's one of the more well made buttons in my collection.
Now, before you begin thinking I'm weird... oh wait, too late for that. My sister has worked for a podiatrist for about 16 years, and so in high school I did a job shadow following one of the doctors in her office. Thus, the "Toeby" button.
This is from my Dad's Air Force days. He gave me this when I was 12, and then gave me his duffel when I was married... to keep our tent in.
Again, I have no idea. I had no idea when I got it, have not developed an idea over the years, and even now cannot think of what this could possibly mean. At least, not any ideas that I can write about.
This button was released as part of the original Pac Man advertising campaign. It's pretty cool.
Ok, there you go... another montage of pictures, and a brief look at the variety of my childhood collectibles.
-The Krunchy Krab
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