As I continue to use Twitter and Facebook
some of the famous beanie babies from the collection (courtesy rubenerd.com)
to reach out to the community to find people who have interesting collections for my different modules, I have to weed through the bizarre and boring, and pick someone and something that I feel will make for an interesting module. Through Twitter, my friend text-messaged me and told me that her roommate has a collection from back when she was younger, and it reminded me of the craze of Beanie Babies during the mid-‘90s.
Amanda Abramowitz is a senior at Towson University, and came over to my apartment, with her massive collection of Beanie Babies, to answer a few questions about the craze that she took part in. Here is an excerpt from that interview.
Sorger: I realize that it was years ago that Beanie Babies were so widely popular, but why did you take part in the excitement?
Abramowitz: Well I was seven or eight at the time they became popular, and what girl doesn’t like teddy bears and stuffed animals? This was just a new, smaller, cuter version of a teddy bear.
Sorger: But you can’t cuddle with them like you can a real teddy bear. There must have been something else that went into this…
Abramowitz: The excitement of going shopping with my mom hoping to find new Beanie Babies in the store that I didn’t already have. I remember there were certain ones that were known to be harder to find, and that was always the goal. I always was trying to collect new ones to keep adding to what I had.
Sorger: I appreciate you getting your collection shipped up to school for my story, but what’s the current status of your Beanie Baby collection?
Abramowitz: I have like 40 of them, and they all sit in my room at home around the perimeter of the room, on top of my furniture. I don’t collect them anymore because I’m older and they were discontinued a long time ago, but every time I’m home I see them and it’s a memory of my childhood. It literally gives me chills ‘cause I remember going to the mall and toy stores with my mom on a mission to find new ones.
Tags: Amanda Abramowitz, beanie babies, collections, collectors
October 19, 2009 at 1:42 pm |
I remember collecting beanie babies. I agree with Abramowitz; It’s not so much that I wanted to cuddle with them that insipred me, it was the excitement of finding a new or rare beanie. It was also a good way to bond with my mom. It might be interesting to look at this story from the nostalgia point of view. The fact that she gets chills whenever she sees her collection is interesting. Maybe find out why they bring about such vivid memories.
October 19, 2009 at 3:19 pm |
this was a good interview. I like how you said “but you can’t cuddle with them like you can a real teddy bear.” Very funny. Are you going to use this story in one of your modules? I think it would fit in nicely. You could even do a whole module on 90′s collections in general. Pogs were big back then too.
October 19, 2009 at 3:33 pm |
Beanie Babies? I completely forgot that they were a big collectors item. Collections really do bring back fond memories.
November 30, 2009 at 5:36 pm |
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