Collections

By C. LaRene Hall

I’ve been thinking about all the things that I’ve collected over the years. When I was a child, paper dolls were my favorite thing to play with. Nowadays I’m not sure if little girls know what a paper doll is. I never could have enough paper dolls or clothing. I spent hours cutting clothing out of the Sears Catalogue so that my dolls would have more clothes.

During my early adult life, I collected salt and peppershakers. When small children broke most of those I started to accumulate mugs. Many years later, my husband worked out of town and he started to buy me a bell at all the places he visited because they were easier to bring home.

Most of my friends know that I collect fairies. I have a fairy fountain and a large variety of fairies. Of course, I have many books about fairies. I also have a lot of lighthouses and pirates. On my most recent trip to Arizona, I even found a pirate fairy.













Books are high on my list of things to collect. If you are my friend and you are a writer, I have to have your book. I could post pictures of my books, but if I forgot someone, I would feel very bad, so I’m not going to put any pictures of my book collection out there.

But none of these things are my most valued collections. My friends are at the top of my list. I’m grateful for my friends. I have some dear friends from my high school years that I still visit with. During my 50+ years as an adult, I’ve held many jobs, and I still have friends from each. Many dear friends have moved away, but I can’t bear to lose their friendship, so I always stay in touch. The past few years I’ve attended many writing conference and have met some dear friends there. All of these new friends are priceless to me. No one can have too large of a collection of friends.