The Pink Elephant

Did I ever tell you about how I started collecting elephants? One day, when I was 18, I had a light blue dress on that had pockets. On the pockets were navy elephants with red eyes. I stuck my hands in the pockets and moved them out and back saying, "Aren't my elephants cute?" My sister, Jackie, said "Oh, Kathy, aren't you ever going to grow up?" To that I said, "Probably not!"

The next birthday I had my sister bought me an elephant. She said, "Remember how you loved your elephants on you dress?" Haha! I didn't really love them, I just was acting silly, as usual. Well, the next birthday came and she bought me another one.

The following Christmas, my brother, Denny, gave me an elephant as a gift. And so forth, and so on. The elephants he got me usually had a story behind them. One was brought out of China when it was illegal to do so. One was made of teak which was illegal to cut.

Elephants became special to me from then on. Denny got me one every year. The year that he and his family (except Cory) were killed in a car accident, I didn't even think about not getting one. However, when my Mom and Dad went to clean out his house she found a stuffed pink elephant and knew it was for me.

A few years back my son, Steve, started buying elephants for me again. I cannot tell you what they mean to me. It doesn't matter if it is a big elephant or even one gotten out of a machine, I love them all. Most of the older ones are out in the building we store things in (because our house cannot hold them all). The elephants are probably pretty dirty, possibly moldy, from being out there that long. We're talking 16 years or more. I'll probably have to wash them with something to kill the mold.  Yuck!

Do you have any collections that you didn't intend to start? Let me know how it all started!