ITEM #1: As I’ve been saying at the end of just about every installment of this column for a little while now (and notice this is now at the beginning of this week’s column, just one of those dramatic change-ups I like to pull on you to make sure everyone is paying attention), Uncle Scrooge is here! He’s also brought quite a few friends and some family with him too, and they’re all part of our latest Special Edition exhibition.

Scrooged! is a tribute to the works of Carl Barks (1901-2000) as well as the life and times of Uncle Scrooge McDuck, celebrating the legacy of the “Good Duck Artist” through a unique exhibition of original oil paintings, artwork and other memorabilia, including the complete original artwork for the comic story, “North of the Yukon.” The exhibition is open through the end of May, so you have time, but we certainly don’t want you to miss it.

ITEM #2: Collectors are born, not made. It’s in the genes. Sometimes it may be difficult to pinpoint when you start acting on that deep-seated hard wiring, you kept the teddy bear instead of throwing it out, you saved that comic after reading it because it was a “limited edition”, but whenever it started, it wasn’t just behavior you learned, it was like a switch was thrown in your brain. You can’t turn it off either.

For me, I remember one of the books that made me want to be a collector. I already was one somewhere in there, but this book helped to kick-start the process. I read it a million times, stared at every picture, reread every word, and tried just about everything it told kids to do. I gathered rocks, I made puppets with socks and paper, I made buttons and bottle cap mobiles, picked up shells, examined stamps, drew maps, went through my pockets for coins, and built a top hat out of construction paper.

I even took fingerprints and became so enamored with detective work that we launched several competing detective agencies at school. We spent more time hiring and firing each other than doing any actual “detective work,” but that’s how it goes in grade school business. 

The book that inspired all these collecting passions? Charlie Brown’s Super Book of Things to Do and Collect. It was first published in 1975 and it was my guide to the amazing world of building a collection, “how to start it, what to do with it, and where to keep it.”

I’m currently putting together a similar introduction to collecting for GEM, and that book is foremost in my mind. We may not all have a doghouse that’s bigger on the inside like Snoopy’s, but from one generation to the next, kids always enjoy collecting. And since it’s genetic, we need to make sure they get the information they need to get the most out of it.

So does anyone need any fingerprinting done?

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Don’t forget to

Visit Geppi’s Entertainment Museum online at www.geppismuseum.com

or in person at

301 W. Camden St.
Baltimore, MD 21201
(410) 625-7060