"Courage", c. 1516 (at the Chicago Art Institute)
Engraving by Marco Dente da Ravenna . . . after Giulio Pippi
I found this image googling "Pippi Longstocking, Thing Finder."
I never liked Pippi particularly, but I like that she is a Thing Finder, something I only recently found out.
I used to be a Thing Finder too, back when I picked things up all the time, especially looking to find paper for collage making.
( Does it involve Courage? Maybe a little, or a disregard for social norms anyway.)
Now "Thrift Herder" better describes what I do, but the attitude is the same---a delight in and intention to seek out the oddments of life.
From Chapter Two of Pippi Longstocking, "Pippi Is a Thing Finder" :
"The whole world is full of things, and somebody has to look for them. And that's just what a Thing-Finder does," [Pippi said].
"What kind of things?" asked Annika.
"Oh, all kinds," said Pippi. "Lumps of gold, ostrich feathers, dead rats, candy snapcrackers, little tiny screws, and things like that."
Little tiny screws.... I especially love that.
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I spent this afternoon at the Thrift Store. Our signs are boring (or nonexistent), and I finally got around to making my first fun one--for the Craft shelves, using the cover of a beat-up vintage knitting magazine, sort of like this one. > > >
Next I 'm going make a sign for the sewing notions using this quote:
There was [a] triumphant cry from Pippi, who was holding up an empty spool of thread.
"This seems to be my lucky day," she said. "Such a sweet, sweet little spool ... to hang around my neck for a necklace. I'll go home and make one this very minute."
My father was also a Thing Finder. He kept his Found Things in what he called his lucky box, which sometimes was a box, but more often an old coffee can - good to the last drop cans.
ReplyDeleteHe inadvertently passed on his penchant for collecting Things to me. I have several small jars of Found Things, some of which serve as mortuary jars for a couple of insects I found - kept them to show grandson, initially. Also have coffee cans in the workshop and an old valentine candy box. My favorite Finds are rocks with faces, heavies, and metal Things (one of which is a Heavy).
I would join a Society of Thing Finders, if there is one.
I'd forgotten about that passage, although I remember it now, and I certainly read Pippi as a kid. She wasn't a favorite, although I remember the movie, which was mediocre. I liked her well enough, in a vague way.
ReplyDeleteMy Thing Finding used to only manifest in rummage sales, but now it's showing in my yardarcheology.
I like Pippi, as a kid. I haven't read her as an adult. Hers was the only bratty child book I ever got my hands on and for that I adored her.
ReplyDeleteCount me in as a thing-finder still.
CROW: "small jars of Found Things"
ReplyDeleteare my favorite!
I would start a Society of Thing Finders if I weren't already so involved in C-KAPE (Captain Kirk Academy for the Pursuit of Excellence), which, come to think of it, does have a Department of Thing Finders.
ZHOEN: Do you have a nice cigar box to put your yardarcheology finds in?
BINK: Pippi is wonderfully independent thinker and life-liver and I love that about her. Something about the stories themselves do not grab me though. Still, she's just what lots of little girls don't get--a celebration of bratty!