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by Rosemary Lee Potter
Special to Tropical Breeze

Once again it seems as if everywhere one goes on visits or vacations there are collections! This round was then no different. It was really true that at every destination — take Denver, New York, Chicago, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Pinellas County, just look around. Somebody had nicely acquired and organized a very special collection, might be biker memorabilia or a European family’s photos as wall décor. Here’s the “Collections” Collecting Adventure!

Ellen’s Stardust Diner on Broadway, NYC—home to a collection of 1950’s memorabilia, décor, furnishings, food, and entertainment.

Historic Glos Mansion, Elmhurst, Illinois, houses thousands of artifacts and photos, as well as interactive displays.

In mid-summer, family members headed for Golden, CO, not far from Denver, to attend a cousin’s wedding at a very special mountain estate, the famed Boettcher Mansion, ensconced up a hilly, winding road. The ceremony was out on a sunny porch deck, with a piney hillside backdrop, including several deer scampering by.

Collections? This is an Arts & Crafts-style lodge-like estate home filled with wonderful historic photos showing the first owners and family events. Across from the mansion, there is the Lookout Mountain Preserve Center, filled with collections and photos of native flora and fauna, set up in cases in such a way that visitors, older or younger, could learn from viewing the items, even say, matching up information, drawings and habitats.

Not far away in the same area, is the Buffalo Bill Museum, where in glassed wall there were photographic long timelines about William Cody’s life, and even a narrated video, including photos from his famous Wild West Show. Displayed were period guns and posters. Nearby is Cody’s grave.

Off to New York City where my undergraduate college, Maryville, TN had a a celebration for an alumni’s directing “Flamingo Court” an off-Broadway Play, starring Jamie Farr (of M.A.S.H* fame) and Anita Gillette. At the New World Stage Theater (part of the NYC major collection of theaters) meeting the two stars was fun, the autographs for our own PLAYBILL collection, and all this amid a huge collection of large Broadway posters on the walls!

The Old John Street United Methodist Church, founded in 1766, the oldest Methodist Society in America, is also in New York very close to Ground Zero. Just think of the Revolutionary military connection of a church that old sitting in that particular 21st Century spot!

In the wood interior sanctuary, there are carved marble tablets on the walls commemorating leaders who died, say, in 1808! In the church basement, a large room filled with artifacts, early china, historical documents, drawings and paintings from this denomination’s past.

Since I planned to see a matinee of “Mama Mia” back up on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theater, I ate lunch at Ellen’s Stardust Diner for a definite 1950s collection experience, beforehand on the corner next door. There, midst chrome and formica booth seating, jukeboxes and walls full of old signed celebrity photos, ads and screens showing vintage movies, I watched the youthful wait staff, actually very talented singers, garbed in bright ‘50s serving uniforms, sing lively period songs, even from up on table-tops! Of course, I had fries and a chocolate milkshake so as to blend in with the collection’s diner theme.

Vintage radio and antenna, items and photos, Elmhurst College, The Elmhurst Historical Museum.

One of hundreds of vendor tents, Annual Corridor Sale, Alabama to Ohio, this tent one with antique and unusual tools in Tennessee.

Then off to Chicago to see my son Robert and my daughter-in-law, Adriana, in Elmhurst, IL. Since Adriana had to work, Robert took me on a tour of this historic, beautifully tree-lined suburban city. We visited the Elmhurst Historical Museum housed in the Victorian family home of Henry Glos, 1st Elmhurst Village President. Inside there are housed more than 10,000 photographs and as many as 7,000 artifacts, as well as many interactive exhibits geared to choose, match up or connect original sites with current ones, a popular arrangement in historical museums.

Robert and I were both interested in a large display of items from nearby Elmhurst College, particularly one radio and what we believe is an early antenna. He and I also shared in the identification of what was thought to be a museum mystery item brought back from Europe in the late 1800s as a souvenir by the wealthy homeowners.

We told the museum secretary that we believed the blackened, 8" high item to be a miniature Irish harp! I could see a shamrock on one side in the perhaps bronze metal, while Robert spotted the mechanism for placing and tightening the five metal strings, now missing. Whether some deft fingers ever played the tiny instrument, who knows?

However, we enjoyed a little online research later that night that pretty well confirmed our joint collectible identification! First, the owners collected the item in Ireland and brought it back to Illinois. Much later, the City of Elmhurst collected it as part of its historical acquisition. Robert and I collected a gleeful adventure surrounding the item as our online research backed up our identification!

On to Signal Mountain and surrounding roads near Chattanooga, TN for an outdoor collection adventure! Of many regular yard sales now enjoyed in Florida, Texas, California and elsewhere, this annual Corridor Sale on Highway 127, billed as the World’s Longest Yardsale, now stretches from Gadsden, AL to Defiance, OH! 630 Miles! Five states! Countless vendors and items! Yum?

This event is truly a collection of collections! There is something for everyone in it — even if, and, it is unlikely, one is just casually browsing, to find an item for their own collection. Held the first week in August this collecting adventure is usually hot, humid, hopeful and happy!

Might find a Bakelite button, a wrought-iron bedstead, an English antique clock from 1790, which still works, a Civil War button, a really rare wooden chalk line tool, a miniature copper spittoon, wrought iron garden figures from Mexico! How about a Dancing Hamster, which, when you press its foot, sings a rock birthday greeting? Hey! From the ‘80s. Only $3!

Just try traveling around without seeing collections at every turn! I know. You don’t have to be dared to go hunting. You already do it! Right?

Note: On Saturday, Oct. 18 you might want to visit Indian Rocks Beach City Hall. There’ll be an antique show. Call 727-586-7515.