IceInSpace Xmas 2009 Competition - What Did You Collect When You Were a Kid?

[Widd]

Does anyone remember the flags of nations that used to be on matchbox tops? I collected all but 1, Greece. And football cards from Mobil service stations. Also the history of flight cards that came wrapped with Cadbury threepenny chocolate bars.......those were the days....

[shanegtr]

I used to collect basketball cards when I was around 12. But once the schools baned them it killed it overnight.

[TheoHE (Theo)]

I used to collect loads of stuff. Started with stamps, then bigtime into rocks after being taken to the old geological museum in Melbourne. Then into insects, pinned and mounted. Newspaper cuttings. Maps, old geological survey reports, Walkabout magazines, almost from their start. Lost a lot of my stuff when my folks moved after I left home. Now my main collecting interests are old postcards and banknotes from anywhere. It's always been a lot of fun. My partner also collects stuff , it's gonna be hard to downsize, but in the meantime we will enjoy it while we can. I glad to see we are not alone, but i think it's not as prevalent amongst the younger generation, correct me if I'm wrong. First scope arriving very soon.... may curb my collecting habit a bit

[seanliddelow (Sean)]

I am still a kid so im still collecting....hope it doesnt exclude me.

I like collecting foreign stamps, banknotes and coins.
I also like collecting Australian Threepence, Shillings and Pennys.
and asto-books

[TrevorW]

Unforutnately as as child I could not afford to collect anything that involved spending money as my father died when I was quite young and my mother was left to raise a family of 3 boys all by herself.

But being intertested in all facets of science from an early aged I thought what could I collect which didn't cost me anything and soon started collecting insects and rocks both of which could be found in abundance and were free.

Now I have a passion for collecting Sci-fi DVD's, memorabilia and science related books.

[MichaelSW (Michael)]

I started collecting aircraft Postcards and aviation badges when I was 8. Kept the postcards in a box in a cupboard, but one day they were discovered by a family of silverfish who spoilt them somewhat. These days my cards are in plastic sleeved album pages. The aviation pins and badges collection still grows slowly, but post September 11, aircrew wings are much harder to come by.

[Hagar (Doug)]

My collection was somewhat unusual compared to most. I collected reptiles. Snakes and lizards of all types. At one point I had a very illegal collection including Brown, Black, Tiger and little whip snakes collected from all over the country. The lizard collection included the little backyard variety skinks right up to a 4 foot lace monitor. I suppose I also collected mice but they were used largely for snake food. At several times the collection added up to about 150 specimens, I even had a small army of school kids who would catch something unusual when on holidays and bring it back to me.

The requirement to liscense ones self as a collector and a wife who would not come near them was in fact the demise of this wonderful collection. I still almost break into tears when I see a mild mannered Blue Tongue lizard flattened on the road.

[DRCORTEX (Lance)]

My best collection was zits when I was around 14. Big ones, little ones, fat ones, skinny ones, and best of all, they were free! Just that delivery always came when I least expected them. Nothing like trying to hide a zit when going out.

Now, if I get a zit, I actually feel young!

Clearasil used to send me an xmas card every year.

Cheers
DOC

[chrisp9au (Chris)]

Girls, and trouble!

Cheers
Chris

[Quack24 (Guy)]

what didn't i collect. Pokemon Cards (Base,Jungle & Fossil) i have the entire collection of Base. Coins from all over the world, Stamps, i used to collect gem stones as well.

[niko]

Hi Blue Fire,

There are a whole variety of boomerangs not just the returning type which were used as entertainment and for throwing into flocks of birds to "herd" them into nets along watercourses.

The number 7 boomerang, so named because it looks like a number 7 (http://www.anyinginyi.com.au/artefac...facts_no7.html) was a hunting weapon designed to bring down small kangaroos and the like and limited mainly to desert regions. Some are very slim and can be carried, others are more robust as used in camp for fighting when the situation warrants. There is archival footage of two-handed ones used in hand-to-hand combat.

The "musical" ones I have are used as a percussion instrument much like clapsticks. They make an incredible sound when clapped together.

Boomerangs are often thought to be the sole property of Australian Aborigines but were used in many parts of the world including ancient Egypt.

cheers

niko

[niko]

One of the threads reminded me that, we too, used to collect the cards form tea packets. In our case it was Tiny Tips Tea and they were bird cards. We had hundreds of them - you could get albums to put them in and even send cards in and swap them.

In 1980 we went to China and took a whole pile of them and gave them out to kids we meet - very well received.

niko

[Jen]

Those nigga bands (that Madonna used to have all up her arms)
yes i had hundreds of them in assorted colors

Shells, keyrings, and erasers and any coin that i could find that was made in 1973

Smash Hits magazines and the TV Week Mag (because they had the best posters in them back then) And model cars Corvettes mostly

And also at easter time i would collect the foil from the easter eggs and smooth them out very delicately (i was easily amused when i was a kid)

[lachyp (Lachlan)]

I used to collect so many things. I went through phases. It went from cardboard toilet tubes to gum nuts to different types of screws that dad would have lying around. That was until mum and dad told it straight to me and said they were pointless and threw them out.

The only real collections I have kept are Hotwheels cars and dinosaur posters.

[melcontent]

I've been a member for 2 years. I haven't posted, as I am a space newbie, but I always access the site and read and share the amazing information you have with the Grade 6 that I work with. I value the emails very much!
As a youngin I collected shells, usually stolen from waves as they were harder to obtain and felt slightly dangerous when you were under 5 foot tall.

I also collected scrapes and scratches because I insisted on wearing bare feet and never managed to be a 'barbie' girl.

[coldspace]

I used to be mad about gem stones/minerals and fossils when I was a kid.
Still got a nice collection that I will never get rid of.

My grand parents used to take me out to the gem fields of Saphire,lightning ridge etc on school holidays, we used to get heaps of opals, sapphires and the like and my grandfather would cut them for me. He had a few leases going back in the 60's and 70's.
My wife now has some of these sapphires mounted in rings that we dug up all those years ago as kids and got cut, and I am saving some real nice ones for my young daughter when she gets older.
My father also ran a stamp/coin businesss so we also collected heaps of these and went to all the fairs around the country all the time on weekends as he was a pilot so we could get aound easily.

I loved my childhood it was just the best time, sad it came to an end.

Matt.

[Afatnuglybloke (Jim)]

When I was a kid growing up in Adelaide, I collected Coke bottle tops. I would go round to all the shops who sold coke and ask if I could have the tops. I would remove the top collectors from the old Coke fridges and empty them out on the dirt footpath then remove the cork ( Coke caps had cork underneath in those days ) with a stone. Under the cap were pictures of South Australian footballers.I then glued them onto a special Coke cardboard fold out with Tarzans Grip ( I can still smell the glue ). I think I completed around 12 of these fold outs and would still have them today if my older brother had'nt destroyed them in a fit a fit of rage because I would'nt give him 2 cents to buy a fag. Still...better the cardboard was destroyed and not my nose.

[star1961 (Lisa)]

i used to collect tadpoles. remember those little creatures you used to watch grow legs and change into frogs! so cool. i was always playing in the creek. not many kids get to do that any more! i also had sea monkeys - he he he - my sister thought this was hilarious cause it was just blue water and couldn't see a thing! i was devastated. now i just collect grey hairs and wrinkles!

[ChrisM]

My collections included the obligatory stamps, coins, and then a bit later on, resistors and capacitors. These were ratted from any old radios, TVs or such like that I could get hold of. Then, of course, there was the large 35mm slide collection. Then along came digital cameras.....
Chris

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Originally Posted by trudi68

When I was a kid I used to collect anything on Rick Springfield! For the uninitiated, he was quite well known for his songs, Jessie's Girl, Love somebody and he acted in the original Battlestar Galactica series (as one of Adama's sons) with Lorne Greene and Richard Hatch, albeit his character was blown out of the sky by the damn cylons!! (I was certainly NOT HAPPY JAN about that!)I could dazzle you all with more Rick trivia but I think that will suffice. I was totally enamoured by Rick Springfield and as such I would collect magazine articles, posters (which completely plastered my bedroom wall). I will let you all into a wee secret, I still have every album (yes album, not CD) that he ever recorded, and ok....still some piccies as well. Please don't tell my friends! LOL.

Merry Christmas all!!

I beleive that Rick was also on General Hospital a US based "Soap" on daytime television...he was quite the thing at the time.