The Bookless Club: Any stories from your graduations?

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So, there you have it: a quick look at the surprising history behind scholastic headgear. Something to share while you’re stuck in FIFA traffic this June.

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Jane Macdougall is a freelance writer and former National Post columnist who lives in Vancouver. She writes The Bookless Club every Saturday online and in The Vancouver Sun. For more of what Jane’s up to, check out her website, janemacdougall.com

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This week’s question for readers:

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Question: Any stories from your graduations?

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Send your answers by email text, not an attachment, in 100 words or less, along with your full name to Jane at [email protected]. We will print some next week in this space.

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Previous question for readers:

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Question: What do you collect, and why?

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• I, too, have a collection of about 100 shot glasses. They’re nicer reminders of places we have visited than T-shirts and easy to squeeze into the luggage. I occasionally use the shot glasses to make a drink and toast to the memory of that vacation. Cycling through the glasses takes a couple years. In the distant future, the plan is for everyone at my memorial to choose a shot glass, have a toast, then take it home with them. Decluttering in action.

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John Ydenberg

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• Honestly, who doesn’t love mermaids? Over 40 years, I have amassed some 500 from all over the world, in all materials and sizes. Naturally, the more friends you have, the more mermaids. Also, we have a large Christmas tree that holds an additional 400 mermaid ornaments. Unfortunately, I only get to display them every second year since my figure-skating wife has a collection of some 500 skating ornaments which fill our tree on alternate years. She is very good at displaying both collections. It’s a lot of work and I can’t complain at her sort-of willingness. How great is that?

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Ron Johnson

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• I only collect two things: children’s teeth — the tooth fairy paid for them all, didn’t she? — and fortune cookie fortunes. They don’t take up any room, are easy to move when I downsize, and create a little fun whenever I display them.

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Sara Shadbolt

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• Years ago, when our daughter was about 16 years old, our family was exploring Prince Edward Island together. An adorable Anne of Green Gables doll caught my eye. I wanted to buy it for my daughter, but she intuited that I wanted to buy it for myself. That was when I realized that I’m a collector. I now have around 28 dolls, including a baby doll I call “Grumpy”, a beauty my parents gave me when I was nine years old and began inheriting dolls from my mother. She was a collector too.

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Claudia Smith

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• My collecting started at the age of 10, many decades ago, starting with Sportsman cigarette packages for the fly-fishing lures. Then cartoon books caught my interest — Charlie Brown, Zits, and others. Eventually, I collected around 5,000 Marvel comic books. Record albums topped 750 before I switched to CDs. Also had three or four hundred science-fiction short story anthologies. When I turned 60 I stopped collecting, but held onto my 1,000 plus CDs and around 1,000 cartoon books.

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Dennis Milton

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• In the past, I collected Glo-Hill Gourmates, which is mid-century Canadian serving ware. It was chrome with bakelite handles and sometimes legs and were sold at The Bay. I love to serve sushi on the platters and asparagus on the long trays. Fifteen years ago, thrift stores were full of them. Most of the items I have only cost a dollar. I was living in Minnesota then, and on trips home, finding these Canadian treasures was a thrill. Of course, the Minnesotans had no idea the serving dishes were common as dirt in Canada.

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Sheila Humphrey

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• I am a collector of anything Peanuts, especially Snoopy. I started collecting when I was 11. My dad always called me Snoop and my collection began with a book given to me at school for Christmas. My parents thought it would be a fad that would last about six months, but I’m now 62 with no plans to stop. There are many others out there who collect too and we get together for “Beaglefest”, usually held in Santa Rosa, CA, where Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz, lived.