Wow, the place here looks like a tornado hit it. We set up the Kirby Museum “convention table” at Maxwell’s this past weekend for the Hoboken Artists Studio Tour. Great time all around, especially being able to lunch with family at Hoboken’s Pilsnerhaus Biergarten. After having brought everything back home, I just had to take a stab at some real, bold expelling and reorganizing of objects.

This effort lead me to reduce the number of shoes in my closet. A long time coming, and now done, eyeball reports an almost 50% reduction of shoe volume. Wow.

But what’s in this plastic “Casey’s” bag on the bottom of the closet with the shoes? Buttons?

Uh, no.

It’s my button shirt.

A Golden Grahams “Have a Golden Day” t-shirt, a gift from my maternal Grandmother, Florence (she’s featured in an earlier blog entry), who loved Golden Grahams cereal, and, I suppose, saved up enough proofs-of-purchase, or whatever, to obtain this shirt for her grandson. I have a memory of a phone conversation with her asking me if I would like the shirt.

I remember I’d had a random collection of buttons back in the late ’80s, and one day my friend Alice G. mentioned that our pal Charlie C. had a t-shirt on which he put all his buttons. Not a bad idea, I thought. Soon after that, I had this shirt hanging on the inside of one of my closet doors at 1105 Washington St. I added to it regularly.

Two apartments and almost twenty years later, here it is.

Highlights:

• Pornographic Betty Boop button purchased during an early visit to Greenwich Village in a shop on W 3rd St. near Village Comics. O boy!
• Welcome to Macy’s – I worked at the Macy’s in Roosevelt Field during the spring and summer of 1981.
• Beat Colgate buttons bought in Syracuse, which I wore on my graduation gown when receiving my diploma. The President laughed when we shook hands.
• Two Ira Karasick for Mayor buttons (1993)
• “Thank You For Shopping At Modell’s” – Modell’s is mentioned in an earlier entry and comments. Ken, could this have been yours?
• “It’s Coming, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers” – I was just talking about this button with my cousin Kathy yesterday at the Pilsnerhaus.
• Hudson County Juror
• San Diego Comic Con 1992 Press badge with “Mondo 2000” and “Boing Boing” typed above my name. Thanks to Andrew Mayer and Jack Kirby.
• Howard the Duck For President. “Get Down America!”

I could go on. Click on the image to see more details. I would love to hear from you.