A Sticky Situation

I've shared more than my fair share of collections on this blog. White pottery, vintage tablecloths, gingham aprons, enamelware, vintage kitchen gadgets, miniature pottery, vintage holiday...and the list goes on and on. I am out in search of my beloved collectibles at yard sales, thrift stores, pretty much anywhere there is junk for sale. Throwing down a dime, a quarter and even a dollar sometimes to get my goods.

But, one of my collections, is, well....obtained in a different fashion. No money is involved. I get it by pure deceit and thievery. I steal it. One by one. Shhhh.

I steal stickers off watermelons in the fruit bin at the grocery store. Whew. I said it out loud. I am a thief. Actually, it's funny - the one pictured on the cover of my Sticker Book is actually a vintage one I paid for on ebay. I guess I'm not a total thief!

Okay, so it isn't exactly a felony. It's just a sticker.

I always try to find a label that has adhered itself to the side of the cardboard bin. And sometimes I find a watermelon that has two stickers on it.

I quietly remove the sticker and place it in my coupon file. I am discreet. Unlike a three or four year old Bean that would yell, "I FOUND YOU A WADDERMELON 'TICKER, MOM!" As it says up there in the corner, my Dad was in the Produce business my whole life. He started my collection of fruit crate labels. When labels no longer started coming on crates and boxes, he started saving the watermelon labels for me.

It took me most of one summer to find all three of these Disney labels. I suspect there might have been four, but who would it have been? Maybe Donald Duck?

Those three watermelons wearing sombrero's give me a chortle.

"Melon Up!" What the heck does that mean?????

Even though it might look like I have two or three of some, they has subtle differences like "Seeded" and "Seedless"or different farms in the same company.

I have stickers from Arkansas, Texas and Missouri. I suspect they don't ship watermelons too far from where they are grown due to the girth and weight of a load of watermelons.

So, now you see my silliest collection yet. (Except for the massive amount of figural stressballs The Bean and I have collected...) But, it is pretty much also my only collection that is organized and takes up very little room. And, I can continue to collect them for years in the same book before I run out of room.

Now I'm craving watermelon!