Other Hobbies

Sharps?? 45.70 or?? Interesting - Selick must like the brand; there was one featured in "The Shadow Riders", starring Sam Elliott and Tom Selick.



Hudsonly,

Alex B

I have dabbled in various collectibles, with a passing interest...



For a while I collected records, mainly 60's beatles, and rolling stones, then sold some, and moved on....



I was into sport compact cars for a bit, a Plymouth and dodge neons, but slowly got out of that with the birth of our daughter in late 2001, traded one car in on a new PT cruiser, kept the other one, and continued to build the engine. Last year, before the birth of our son, I sold the other neon, which was a rare car, it was one of 50 built in the color with the option package, for that model year. It was pretty quick, but found out after a late night burnout from the beginning of the year, in front of hudsondad's and hudsonmom's house (which she had to come out in her nightgown and bathrobe to help push the car into the yard/snow) in which I scattered the transmission all over the road for about 75 yards, that it was time for it to go.



Then I collected old wrist watches, mainly Hamilton (local company) and had more fun selling than buying. I managed to keep about 8 to wear, when the mood is right, nothing rare.



Then I dabbled in vintage cameras, which I had some fun with. I enjoyed taking pictures with the vintage equipment, some of it quite old, such as rangefinder Contax from the 30's, which I had a pretty nice collection of. Also, I liked to use SLR's from the 60's manly pentax, but had a few Nikon F's, but never liked the physical dedication to carrying them around. What killed off this hobby, was digital photography. I found that the results with digital were easier to get to, and cheaper, and once I started buyign digital cameras, I kind of parted company with the SLR's and stuff. I'm on my 3rd high end digital camera, actually this is my first DSLR, which I have been able to incorporate some of my vintage lenses.



Not to forget about it, me and hudsondad make it a point to go to several car shows each year, and take a lot of pictures. It used to be measured on rolls of film, but with digital, and the portability of my laptop, the sky is truly the limit. I manage anywhere from 100 to 700 pictures a show. I guess you can see the cost savings, since we don't ever get to printing them out. easier to burn to a 10 cent CD or a 50 cent DVD.



Also, I dabbled in early US large cents for some time. I had a great time assembling a collection from 1793 to 1857, that I was quite proud of, but decided that when it came down to either my family enduring hardships after our little guy was born, or the large cents, that it was preferred to sell some of them off. The prices I realized were unbeleivable, and I did really well on the collection, but it was not an easy decision, that still saddens me today. The decisions like this are the toughest to make. I was able to meet a bunch of great people that appreciated each coin they purchased almost as much as I did assembling the collection. That made me feel good about it. I was able to maintain my knowledge, and I still spend some time each week envolved in study of the series of large cents, mainly to be able to identify rare varieties, just in case I was out somewhere, and came across a few.



My main hobby has been collecting vintage fountain pens. (what?) There is a significant following of early fountain pens, and I have been collecting and using them since around 1990. The hobby has come a long way, and it is a real neat aspect of collecting. They are fun to use, and fairly recently,I have found my focus is on a specific brand. I collect a brand called Chilton (got any?) that are rather hard to find. They made pens from 1922~ till about 1941. They made high quality pens, and were more of a regional manufacturer in the boston, long island areas. My research on the company has pretty much assured my status of being considered the expert on the brand, which is kind of cool, but sometimes with the amount of e-mail I get wiht questions is overwhelming. I also have thinned out my collection, mainly because I have been spending more time with my hudson, and to some degree have been losing some interest in some of the later products.



Hope someone found some entertainment value out of this, pretty much a snapshot of what i have done for the last several years.



I guess I wonder what my next hobby will be....