'Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String ...'

If your favorite things are PEZ dispensers and bobbleheads rather than copper kettles and woolen mittens, you're not alone

By Genevieve Knapp
CTW Features

"I have weird feelings about toothbrushes," says Billy McCall, a 25-year-old who has a collection of every toothbrush he's used since high school. "When I see toothbrushes that have really funny packages I buy them, so I have packs of toothbrushes hanging on my wall in my bedroom."

McCall isn't the only one who has a peculiar collection. He fits in at Uncle Fun, a kitschy wonderland filled with handwritten signs, wooden dressers with drawers hanging out and old cardboard boxes piled underneath everything. McCall, the manager of the Chicago store, daily dishes out gag gifts, bobbleheads and PEZ dispensers to eager collectors.

"There was a guy here last night who was a tattoo artist, and he collects religious iconography," McCall says.

Plenty of people have obsessions with objects that aren't worth squat, don't belong anywhere and would be weird to talk about. But a quirky collection can mean more than artifacts accumulating in a box in the basement.

Having a collection in a home "is always a starting point for conversations, an ice breaker," says Ted Frankel, the owner of Uncle Fun. "People will come to my house and look at things and say, 'That's great!' or 'That's weird! Where'd you get it?"

Collection means group; you can't have just one PEZ holder. If you want it to be interesting, get 800, Frankel says. "Visually, collections are exciting because multiples are good," he says.

Frankel's house is filled with collections that hang on the walls or are arranged together in little scenes. Creatively envisioning plots for figurines or toys to enact is another way to make a collection look interesting.

That's the tactic Nancy Laboz chose to display collectables in her Montclair, N.J. store called Parcel. "The building used to be a book and record store, so it is filled with shelving and little cubbies," Laboz says. "I've created little stories in every cubby, so they are kind of like a world people can enter into."

Parcel, a twist of vintage general store and curiosity shop, sells paper ephemera, arts and crafts materials, and unusual nostalgic items. Laboz says the idea of the shop took root when her collections, which used to fit in a trunk, began to take over a secret room in her house that is behind a bookcase.

It's not uncommon for people to dedicate an entire little room or set of shelves to their collections, according to McCall. The important thing is keeping collections organized.

"Take some time and have a specific area for them. If you organize yourself and say, 'This bookshelf is for these items,' or 'This particular bookshelf is themed like this,' when someone comes over to visit they can see that you put a little effort into it and it is all the more impressive."

Why collect at all? For Laboz, whose current favorite collectible is miniature porcelain dolls with moveable arms and legs, it's more than a personal drive.

"Recently I've thought about the whole movement of recycling," Laboz says.

"I feel like my purpose with the business is to recycle past objects and give them a new lease on life. I can't stand when someone discards something that was once beautiful, even if it is discolored or broken."

Nostalgia is a big reason to love old things; they remind people of their childhood. Both Parcel and Uncle Fun stocks things that were around 50 years ago along with modern doodads.

"Most people who come through the door leave smiling, because everyone who comes into that shop is a kid," Frankel says. "Some of them are just in bigger bodies."

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