Wednesday, March 10,1999 IHh OAKVILLb HhAVfcK FOURTH LINE AUTO For A ll Your Car's Needs CAA Tune Ups In Business Approved Brakes in Oakville Shop Cooling System Since 1979 Gov't. Safety Checks; Exhaust System s 559 Speers Road • 842-3001 (across fromDarigold) Oakville Beaver Focus Editor: WILMA BLOKHUIS 845-3824 (Extension 250) Fax: 337-5567 By Sandra Om and SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Collecting, for Angela Racette, is not just a hobby. It is a reminder to smile and find joy in life despite personal tragedy. Racette was one of 11 local collectors display ing their collections Sunday afternoon at the third annual Collectors' Day held in the Oakville Museum at the Erchless Estate. The collections were an eclectic mix of items from amber glass, Beanie Babies, Rogers antique radios, elephants, buttons, apples, old carpentry tools, Oakville memorabilia and, of course, Racette's clowns. Racette, 75, began collecting clowns quite by accident when she lived in Sturgeon Falls in northern Ontario. She bought a clown on a whim one day to support the local nursing home. A short time later that clown became an important symbolic item in her life when her husband became seriously ill and had to go into that same nursing home. He died four weeks later. After her husband's death in 1993 she joined her son and his family in Oakville. Her son and grandchildren started buying her more clowns as presents and soon she, too, was buying clowns and bringing them back from her various travels. But within five years of her husband's death, tragedy struck again with the untimely demise of her only son. One of his last gifts to her was a clown watch from Las Vegas. Racette says she identifies with the clowns she collects and feels that in many ways her life is like that of a clown, "you cry on the inside, but you laugh on the outside." It is this philosophy that she uses every morn ing as a volunteer for Tele-Touch, a program that phones seniors who live alone. She says, like her clowns, when she calls she puts on a cheerful face and that helps because eventually you become cheerful yourself. Joy Smith, 77, considers her collection of buttons, which cover a five-foot by two-foot piece of felt, also a memory collection. She has her high school pin, her freshman tag from university, her discharge pin from the army as well as buttons with pithy slogans reflecting her time working as a library technician with the fed eral government. For Meryl Heurter, however, a Grade 5 stu dent at Sunningdale Public School, she collects Beanie Babies not because of any special memo ries, but because she likes them. Her enthusiasm for the soft little stuffed ani mals bubbles over as she describes her collection of Beanies, pointing out the unique ones and sin gling out the bears as her personal favourites. Heurter has 50 Beanie Babies and only started collecting a year ago when she received one as a gift from a friend for her ninth birthday. She has since become serious about her collecting which is what prompted her to decide to leave the tags on. "The tags are important," says Heurter, "because if you cut them off they'll only be worth half of their value." Comments like this, however, worry Walter Podilchak, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto. Podilchak is concerned that the traditional motivation of collecting for memories and plea sure may itself be on the verge of becoming a collector's item. "There is starting to be a shift and it is becom ing an industry generated process where people are encouraged to collect as a possible future commodity," says Podilchak, "creating a tension between collecting for memories and pleasure and for making money." rian Darby, 45, a surveyor for the Town of Oakville, displayed his collection of radios from 1925 to 1932 and knows a bit about what Podilchak is talking about. He belongs to the London Vintage Radio Club, which has 150 members, and has seen a "shadier" part of the hobby. "Some people join the club to buy at club prices then sell on the Internet at a profit," he says. Darby's collection began 29 years ago as "something fun to spend time on" and has since grown into a collection so unique that Rogers Communications has come knocking on his door looking to buy some of his pieces. Still there were other collectors, like Ann Bobyk with her collection of amber glass and Donalda Fordham with her collection of apples, who began collecting for no other reason than the fact they liked the objects. Fordham related how she and a friend went into a craft shop 10 years ago and she picked up a wooden apple that felt so good to the touch she just had to have it. Her collection of apples has since grown to 60 and has spilled over into her rug hooking where at least one apple is sure to make an appearance. Bobyk also collects purely for aesthetic rea sons, buying only pieces that appeal to her. She not only derives a great deal of enjoyment from the amber glass's warm colour but she also uses the pieces. Her collection never gets a chance to collect dust. Photo by Glen Thiessen Angela Racette, 75, came dressed as a clown to display her collection of clowns at Sunday's Collector's Day at the Oakville Museum. She was one of 11 collectors participating in the event Oakville Place 240 Leighland Avenue, Oakville. Ontario • (905) 339-0611 Milton Mall 55 Ontario Street South, Milton, Ontario • (905) 693-8942 O \ f tmeT PMOnJ^ f n 5 ... W^AR IT / N o t v F R P c e 'V e 3 S i E.P^rof a l f Z j edn s The QCP27Q0' and Its' CDMA technology have been j developed by QUALCOMM Introducing Digital P C S $35/350 M I N U T E S • $.35. 350 min ( loo uiiyitmc & 250 weekend wcTkiiielils) • Digital phones starting as low as $00 • No Contrai l • Per-second billing *Som« Ttrm* and Conditions Apply. 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