I love collecting. Whether it is Emmet Kelly Clowns, teapots or kitty cats, I am a collecting fanatic. As I was preparing for my yard sale last week, I mentioned I had stumbled on a box of memories. There were many items in there that are treasures to me. One thing I had forgotten about was my thimbles.
Growing up in a family where we didn't own a car, vacations were unheard of. We went to Grandma Garretson's up in the country 2 or 3 times a year either on a Greyhound or my aunt would take us. When I married my hubby, he was a traveler. We would take one long 1-2 week vacation every summer and little weekend trips periodically through the year. I was so fascinated with the junk shops in the vacation spots. I had never traveled, so all this was new to this old country gal. Being a born shopper, I loved to scour around the quaint little towns for treasures. That is how I stumbled on and fell in love with collecting.
Everywhere we went, when you went up to the counter they would have these adorable little thimbles so I decided to start collecting them. Just about every trip, I would pick one up as a souvenir to show I had been there. As my collection grew, I started getting them as gifts from my family and friends as they went on vacation. My first one came from the Great Smoky Mountains about 10 years before we moved here from West Virginia. I have them from Myrtle Beach, Panama City Beach, Daytona Beach, Virgina Beach, Gulf Shores, Luray Caverns, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, New York, New Orleans, Maine, Pittsburgh, The Amish Country, Kings Island, Chattanooga, Helen GA, Hershey PA, and many more.
I can pick up each one and it will bring back a ton of memories either of my trips or of my family who bought them for me. Who knew that little ol' thimbles would come to mean so much. I think I'll bring them out of storage and set up a new display for them. That way, when I feel the need to get away, I can pick up a thimble, close my eyes and take a vacation in my mind.
