Going from one to 10 to 100

It’s a huge addiction with Southlanders, collecting. Just collecting stuff. You’d have seen us in our dozens at Todds’ weekly auctions, espied us on SBHS Old Boys’ Association shed tour buses, watched us backing trailers in and out of garage sales and rural clearance shows.

Sometimes we are just looking but mostly we are buying, looking for a bargain something to add to a collection growing steadily.

Garage sales, township-wide, are an annual fund-raising feature in Tuatapere (which started the trend), Winton, Te Anau and this past weekend Riverton where our representatives Mark and Vanya did what we wished we could have done – faithfully visited 30 sale centres and scored two hits, a real hit being something under $5 and precious.

Competition was keen, with hundreds at school sale base, registering interest. On less august telly programmes than Antiques Roadshow, Brits will grunt car boot when asked how they found some wonderful, old and beautiful object.

Car boot indeed! A much smaller affair than a garage sale and nothing like a town-wide show and they get that? .

We should all look more carefully. Collectors, curious folk, do.

I have collected all sorts of things, eventually disposing of them to concentrate on something else.

Once with late mate John Gellatly I was an avid bottle collector; he finding and digging; me washing and saving.

Today I keep the memory with two blue slab bottles, one little round red bottle, one bulgy dark wine vessel and a green glass box. And my once-vast tin collection has shrunk to one little pin box. Could I start again?

Well l have one, just one, thimble . . .