No Collection is Too Weird for the Adventurous

in #nature6 years ago

Collection of animal feet

A quote for the read:

"The whole point of collecting is the thrill of acquisition, which must be maximized, and maintained at all costs."
— John Baxter

         Collecting something, no matter what it be, is always an adventure. To be able to go back through history or stories of human culture simply by looking at random objects collected by you or someone else is the result of such an adventure. My grandpa was an avid collector of many things, including scythes, glass soda bottles, toy tractors, typewriters, lighters, etc. Some of the items he has are very old, so it’s neat to look at them.

         I started collecting things not too long ago, starting with the statehood quarters. It didn’t take me long to get all fifty of those so then I moved on to the National Park quarters and soon came along some other coins (see them here), some old but not worth much. My other collection consists of animal feet – and although what you might think, no collection is too weird. As of right now, I have ground squirrel, chick, rabbit, and opossum feet. Oh yeah – and one goat foot my grandparents bought me from Mexico. I do not hunt these animals solely for their feet, in fact, I don’t hunt them at all. They were all roadkill once and I cut the feet off before I skin them, which brings me to my next collection: animal skins and other parts. So far in that one I have a ground squirrel and brown squirrel skin, and a turtle shell. I tried to skin an opossum but long story short, the whole thing was a mistake. As far as the parts go, I have one porcupine quill, goose & pheasant feathers, deer antlers, a rabbit tail, and a deer jaw.

Animal skins

Deer antlers and pheasant feathers

Here is a pair of small deer antlers and some pheasant feathers.

         My final and not as exciting collection consists of pencils. This one I actually started a long time ago with my dad and we’ve slowly added to it over time. Whenever we see a decorated pencil for sale on a shelf somewhere, we make a quick effort to buy it and throw it in a shoebox with the rest. In there are probably around four to five hundred uniquely designed pencils. Nobody really knows what to do with a collection other than store it away somewhere and occasionally study it from time to time, but that’s not the point. It’s the thrill when you discover something new to add. That’s what I think anyway.

Post #35, Published July 1, 2018 by Elijah Wasson


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