Bringing Tears To This Collector’s Eye

Much to the chagrin of husband, Barry, I am a collector. Not just a collector, oh no! I am an “Overachieving Collector”. We OC’s do not just collect one thing – we collect several. I am not the most overly achieving of the OC’s – I only collect about 5 different things….mostly. Let’s see – there’s depression era glass (milk, carnival, vaseline, etc.),Goebel Hummels, eclectic wine glasses, calendar towels, AND vintage Sunbeam Mixmaster Mixers.

I have collected Mixmasters for the last 5 years. It started because of my mother’s turquoise, 1950’s era model 11 mixer. My father bought this for her in 1956 – while she was pregnant with me. It is the only mixer my mother owned until the day she died, which happens to have been in February of this year. Up until today, I owned a model 5, a model 9 and a model 12. Today – after a failed attempt in May, resulting in a shipment containing a mixer and bowls in about 200 tiny pieces – I am the proud owner of a turquoise model 11 mixer. Not only that, BUT it has turquoise bowls – something my mother’s did not (and never did) have.

Mom’s mixer is still humming merrily along in my cousin, Leeann’s, kitchen. She had always wanted that mixer, and Mom had always promised it to her. I’m happy she has it, and I know she loves it as much as I. But today I feel as if another bit of “memory making with Mom” has come home. And that makes me happy – to the point of tears.