Uncle AJ's Rolex, Wrist Watch & Nature Forum A place to chill out and have some fun a forum about nothing yet also about everything. An alternative wrist watch and nature forum.
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 4:48 am Post subject: Have an old discarded hobby...?
Do you have a hobby or collection that interested you years ago and you have laid it aside or disposed of it? If you haven't disposed of it do you ever think of getting back to it? Is it a sentimental attachment, not willing to take the loss if you dump it or just too lazy to deal with it?
In my case it's just lazy. Approx 30+ years ago I started collecting poison bottles. Yes, I know, it sounds weird. Bottle collecting is one of the largest hobbies in the world. There is a tremendous variety and types of collections. Just to name a few...fruit jars, perfume, flasks, wine, medicine, snuff, soda, beer, ink, whisky, milk, barber, fire grenades, poison, etc., etc.
I chose poisons for three reasons. It's the smallest group within the hobby, the most unusual and most colorful. Poisons needed to be easily identifiable to avoid accidental exposure and in the 1800's a large percentage of the population was illiterate. To counter this, the bottles were brightly colored (cobalt blues, emerald greens and amber were the most popular). In addition the bottles might be a strange shape (skull, coffin, triangular, hexagon, octagon, etc.) or heavily embossed with skulls, words, beads and pointed protrusions. Clear poison bottles were not as common and confined to pharmacies and hospitals.
Most poison bottles were manufactured from 1870 to 1930. In the 1930's it was generally decided that colorful, unusual shaped and heavily embossed bottles attracted children's attention, thereby defeating their purpose. This ended the era and resulted in plain bottles stressing safety closures.
After accumulating over 100+ bottles (empty naturally) I realized they were too fragile to have around a busy family with three active children. To avoid the anticipated breakage, I packed them up years ago and they have been in my garage ever since.
Told you more than you ever wanted to know huh? :shock: _________________ Regards,
Joined: 07 Aug 2007 Posts: 263 Location: Queensland, Australia
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 6:25 am Post subject:
I used to collect law enforcement patches and pins. For the last 12 years of my working life, I traveled Asia, NZ, Pacific Region and the USA. I managed to collect quite a diverse range of patches and lapel pins from everywhere I went.
Now they just sit a in a box. I don't really know what to do with them. None of my family is interested in them, so maybe I'll donate them somewhere.
Like AJ I collected wine. I had quite a selection of fine reds, but when I moved (retired) up here I did not have a cellar to keep them cool, so I drank 2 per week over about 6 months. Now I buy and drink!
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