Page 31 - JOAMay2021

Collectomania!
Collectomania!
Savoring Those Souvenirs
Savoring Those Souvenirs
lady of my acquaintance collects souvenirs with a
vengeance. If she’s seen it, visited it, or done it, she has
Athe refrigerator magnet (or T-shirt, or coffee mug, or
snow globe, or … well, you get the idea), to show for it.
Sometimes those souvenirs are (presumably) free for the
taking: hotel room soaps marked with the hotel name,
restaurant placemats, bar matchbooks (yes, in some places
they’re still available). Sometimes they’re items she buys,
like those magnets and mugs. Sometimes the line is murkier.
We met on an island cruise. Leaving the breakfast room
one morning, my acquaintance stopped by a display of trop-
ical fruit and proceeded to fill her oversize handbag with
bananas, guavas, and even a pineapple.
I had to ask: “You know those are plastic, right?”
“Sure!” she responded. “What great souvenirs!”
Proof Positive
Souvenirs. Since the
first caveman trudged
home from hunting, with
an unusual-looking rock
he’d stumbled over, sou- secretary lucky enough to attend the 1939 New York World’s Fair. In
venir collecting has been
ingrained in the human
psyche. Whatever the
experience was, we want
evidence we can hold on
to. Yes, we were actually
there. Yes,
we actually did that. A postcard showing the exterior of
Hogwarts Castle at Universal Florida’s Harry Potter
attraction is one thing. A “you-are-there” framed
photo, taken while the gang is shrieking its way down
the roller coaster inside the castle is quite another. That
personalized souvenir brings those memories back to
heart-pounding life. The underlying narrative validates
the thrills.
Finders/Keepers
The simplest souvenirs fall into the same category as
that caveman’s unusual-looking rock: “found objects.”
You stroll the beach at Waikiki for the very first time
and pick up pretty shells. On an autumn jaunt to
Canada, you search through multi-colored piles of
leaves, looking for just the right ones to take home and
By Donald-Brian Johnson
press. Found object souvenirs like these remain popular with today’s
travelers. They rekindle pleasant memories and don’t cost you a thing
(well, besides travel expenses).
Canny operators can, at times, turn found objects into money-mak-
ing ventures. Take Papa Dionne, for instance. The father of the famed
Dionne Quintuplets noted that visitors to the family’s Canadian
homestead, while waiting to catch a
glimpse of the Quints, often picked
up souvenir stones from the sur-
rounding farmland. Sensing a
business opportunity, Papa D.
gathered up baskets of them, set
up a roadside stand across from Dionne Fertility Rock Souvenir
his home, and sold “fertility
rocks.” He soon found himself
in need of more.
For the duly diligent, found
object souvenirs can also serve as
a day-by-day (sometimes minute-
by-minute) documentation of an adventure. Several years back, I ran
across a scrapbook put together by Mildred Anderson, a young Chicago
addition to a detailed typed summary of her journey (after all, she was
a secretary), Mildred filled her scrapbook with memorabilia of the Fair,
and all the stops her train made along the way. As there were plenty of
stops—Niagara Falls, Manhattan, Philadelphia, Atlantic City,
Washington, D.C., Mount Vernon, and the Cumberland
Mountains—Miriam accumulated plenty of mementos. Among them:
ticket stubs, flyers, programs, napkins, matchbooks,
placemats, salt-and-pepper and sugar packets, hotel
soap wrappers, stationery, maps, menus, coasters, bot-
tle labels, pencils, and even the occasional dried leaf.
Each item was brightly emblazoned with a logo trum-
peting its origin.
Now, some might call this junk. For Miriam, these
were souvenirs to be treasured, tangible reminders of a
personal Grand Tour. Like old friends, they could
always be called upon in the future to help recapture
happy visions of the past.
(Incidentally, Miriam’s “All-Expense-Paid Eight-
Day Deluxe Powers Tour” only set her back $49 total.
Yes, you read that right.)
Some found souvenirs are actually unpaid adjuncts
to paid activities. Let say you shared a romantic meal in
the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. You kept the empty
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