David Cooper: Hybrid Tea Roses
David Cooper's yard (front and back) in the Kenwick neighborhood is a veritable botanical garden of hybrid tea roses, with nearly 90 varieties on display in the warmer months. When he moved into his home two years ago, he had to transplant his garden from its previous location.
"It took me a year and a half of constant work going back and forth bringing plants over here," he said. "You should have seen the back of my car."
The labor was well worth the effort, though, considering the antiquity of the plants --
the oldest variety in his garden dates back to 1891.
"A lot of times people don't realize that what you are growing is a piece of that original plant carried down through the generations," he said.
And aside from the rose plants' vintage qualities, the roses also have a deep legacy of sentimentality for Cooper. Many of the varieties come from cuttings out of family and friends' gardens.
"I have a couple of roses from people who are no longer here," he said. "I've got a rose in the back from my father's garden in North Carolina his grandmother had from the 1930s."
Hybrid tea roses were "invented" in the 1800s, when the beautiful, yet tender, tea rose was hybridized with the heartier hybrid perpetual rose to capture the attractive traits of both species. Hybrid tea roses are known for their textured petals, assorted color variations, durability and, certainly, smell.
"When it's really warm and the sun is beating down on them, you can walk out here and it's just like being at the Woolworth's perfume counter," Cooper said.
Many of the varieties' names also have significance, such as "Peace," which was created after the end of World War II. Cooper says just about every famous person has a rose named after them as well.
"About everybody and their brother has got a rose named for them," he said. "There's not a David Cooper rose."
- Robbie Clark
Brian Gorrell: Antique Phonographs
With more than a hundred antique phonographs on display in his basement, and a hundred more in storage and in various antique booths around town, Brian Gorrell's collection is certainly impressive, if not the most extensive in Kentucky. As a band director, musician and retired music educator, his interest in early sound devices is multi-faceted -- not only is he fascinated by the history and the evolution of the technology, but the external brass horns adorned by many of the early-model machines appeal to the French horn player in him.
Gorrell's first purchase of the collection was a Victrola (a specific line produced by the Victor Talking Machine Company, not a generic term for all phonographs). He purchased it 17 years ago, and then three more a few months later; within the first year, Gorrell found himself at an auction, poised to buy one or two more phonographs, after which he swore he would be done.
"A friend said, 'Nah -- you're hooked on this,' and he was right," Gorrell recalls. "It's a disease -- you get into it and you can't stop."
Today, his collection includes nearly 200 cylinder and disc phonographs, as well as some phonograph music boxes, nursery rhyme-playing phonograph dolls (a rather strange invention by Thomas Edison, who also invented the first phonograph in 1877), one of the earliest juke box models, and a number of replicas of Nipper - the small white dog who served as the logo for many audio recording companies.
"As far as people asking what's your favorite player, it's like asking, 'what's your favorite child?'" Gorrell said. "Sometimes this one's my favorite, sometimes I don't like that one very muchÖ"
Gorrell, who also repairs the antique machines, sells some of his finds at the Athens Schoolhouse Antique Market, as well as at the Antique Store of Lexington. He has become well-connected with the International Antique Phonograph Society, and hosts "listening parties" for the local branch, the Kentucky Antique Phonograph Society, each month.
Fellow phonograph enthusiasts can contact Gorrell at b.gorrell@insightbb.com or (859) 619-4837.
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Saraya Brewer
Pete Birdsong: Model Trains
Pete Birdsong's model railroad basement setup is more of a miniature replication of an actual turn-of-the-century logging railroad than an outright collection, but looking at the 24 x 12 ft. layout and the intricately designed buildings and apparatuses, it is evident the master model railroader has collected many pieces to make the Fernwood Lumber Company in Magnolia, Miss., and all of its surroundings, come alive.
"This represents a real railroad down in Mississippi around the turn of the century," Birdsong said.
What's most impressive isn't the meticulously laid track lines, with each tie glued down and adorned with tiny rail spikes, or the train engines themselves --
it's the artistry and authenticity Birdsong employed during the five years it took to complete his current layout. All of the buildings were made by hand, to scale, and the attention to detail, all the way down to the small cow patties and the real Mississippi dirt used to ballast the rails, is very thorough. The trees were made by cutting down and painting pieces of Joe-Pye weed, an herbaceous flowering plant with buds that resemble miniature trees.
"That's the piece de resistance of the whole thing," Birdsong said.
The superintendent for the local division of the National Model Railroad Association, Birdsong hosts regular model railroad operation meetings at his home with fellow enthusiasts. As a child, he got involved with model trains when he received his first Lionel set, but his interest waned as he got older, only to be rekindled about 20 years ago when his wife bought him a little table top set.
"I stayed with that until I got interested in girls," Birdsong laughs, "which is what happens for most people that are into trains. They leave it for a while then get back into it when they're older."
For more information on the local division of the National Model Railroad Association and its monthly meetings, visit nmra-division10.railfan.net.
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Robbie Clark
Rosetta Quisenberry: Black Memorabilia
Among many, many other items on display in her home, Rosetta Quisenberry has a large collection of postcards she calls "black memorabilia" stashed away in envelopes and folders --
images she's been amassing since she was 24 years old. Through the years, she's given up trying to keep a running tally, since she's always adding to her collection.
"I don't count anymore, because you're always adding to it," she said. "If you find another piece, you'll buy it."
Her collection, which she has featured in a four-part, self-published series of books, is separated into two groups: "the positive," which is made up of early 20th century portraits of African Americans, and "the negative," which consist of politically incorrect, racially insensitive, and outright vulgar illustrations mocking black culture.
Some of the negative postcards date back as far as the 1880s, but as far as her collection goes, Quisenberry isn't interested in learning artist information or finding out what era they came from.
"I'm not concerned with time," she said. "I'm concerned with what they can tell you."
Artists in this medium relied on a handful of racist stereotypes and symbolism to lampoon African Americans, and Quisenberry can find hidden meaning in many of the images which may not have been apparent with a cursory glance.
"These kind of images were being made about us, and nobody ever told me that this stuff existed," she said about the first time she saw a postcard of this nature. "I was utterly shocked. I was wiped out when I first saw it, literally. I got so hot."
In stark contrast to these illustrations, Quisenberry's collection of portraits (which were also used as postcards) give a more reliable depiction of black culture.
To find new items for her collection, she exhausts a number of outlets (antique stores, flea markets), but now, she has also begun to rely on other people bringing items to her.
"They know Mrs. Quisenberry wants this kind of stuff," she said. "I've had people donate several things to me that's of great value to me."
For more information on Quisenberry's series of books, visit www.asagaoftheblackman.com.
- Robbie Clark
Jeffrey Jones: Vinyl Records
Ask a record collector why they prefer wax over the decidedly more convenient audio advancements that have emerged over the past few decades, and they will give you any number of reasons: the quality of sound, the packaging, the physical nature or even the sentimentality of the format. For Jeffrey Jones, whose vinyl collection boasts more than 7,000 titles, alphabetized and chronologically organized by artist or composer, the answer is relatively simple: vinyl was the format that was available when he started his collection more than 40 years ago.
"The vast majority of this is all out on CD now, but it wasn't then," Jones said. "If it was on LP originally, I want it on LP."
Jones traces the roots of his obsession back to his childhood, when his family would listen to selections from his parents' collection, which consisted of 100 or so classical records and show tune soundtracks. Some of the first records he purchased, in the late 1960s, included Iron Butterfly's "Ball," The Who's "Tommy," and Pink Floyd's "Ummagumma," which he was attracted to because of the album art and in turn led him down a rabbit hole to a host of interesting music that was outside the realm of his suburban upbringing. Frank Zappa was another revelatory discovery to Jones in his early collecting days, leading him to an appreciation for jazz, and to a certain extent, rekindling his appreciation for classical music.
Jones's musical taste is known to some in Lexington by his weekly radio show on WRFL, which is devoted to progressive rock and related forms (the show, called "The Musical Box, airs 10 p.m. - midnight every Thursday). However, his collection encompasses a much wider variety than prog rock -- extensive selections of jazz, classical and classic rock, as well as obscure avant garde and progressive rock titles, can be found in the stackable wooden crates that consume most of the wall space in his Idle Hour apartment. (Many of the crates were handmade by Jones himself, and each record in a sealable acetate sleeve.)
"The collection includes anything that strikes me as interesting," he said, "and interesting could be any sort of thing."
- Saraya Brewer
Josh Waddle: Action Figures
Action figure collectors have a bad reputation of denying themselves the pleasures of indulging in their toys' true purpose by never taking them out of the box, but walking into Josh Waddle's bedroom, it's obvious that this collector isn't bound to any collector pretensions.
"You can enjoy them the most if you liberate them," Waddle said, showing off multiple shelves of action figures from a variety of collections: He-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marvel and DC comic book super heroes (and villains), Transformers, professional wrestling characters, G.I. Joe, and many more. "A lot of people think if you take it out of its package, it loses all of its value, but a lot of this stuff, even out of the package, would still sell for a good price on e-Bay."
The roots of Waddle's collection, which he estimates to be between 700 - 800 figurines, began, naturally, when he was a child, and never really let up.
"It's something I've done my entire life. I started when I was 3 and I never really stopped," he said. "I'm a bit of a pack rat. I still have a bunch of my old stuff. I refused to ever let my parents sell it or get rid of it."
Many of the figurines are acquired at local retail stores, like Wal-Mart and Toys 'R Us, and Waddle follows Internet forums to know when certain characters or series are going to be released.
"Sometimes I'll buy them online and pay a slightly higher price because it's a big headache to drive around place to place looking," he said. "Sometimes you start wondering if the Wal-Mart in Winchester has something different."
As a young man with a perceivably childish hobby, Waddle isn't concerned how his collection might be received among his friends.
"For a lot of them, even though they don't do it and they might think it's kind of silly, once they step in here and see everything, they kind of turn to kids again."
- Robbie Clark
Jack Cunningham: Fine Pens
Jack Cunningham's extensive collection of fine pens runs the gamut of prestigious brand names: Montblanc, Parker, Waterman, Sheaffer, Pelikan, Bexley. Admittedly, he owns "more than a couple hundred" of these writing utensils, but he keeps the official tally under tight wraps.
"I never try to publish that, because I'm afraid my wife will see it," he laughed.
In contrast to other pen collectors, Cunningham, a lawyer with Frost Brown Todd LLC, is only interested in modern pens, not antique varieties --
and for good reason, he puts them to good use and appreciates the craftsmanship.
"It's really the personal side of it," Cunningham said. "And now, we've got some young lawyers here that probably have never seen a fountain pen -- for them it's a throw-away ball point. We're in such a fast-paced world. When I sit down and try to do some notes or outlines, I don't do it on a computer; I do it in handwriting," Cunningham said. "It just kind of clears my mind a little bit, gives me a chance to think."
Cunningham first became enamored with pens when he found a half-priced Montblanc while stationed in Japan, serving for the Marine Corps. Since that first acquisition, the collection has ballooned to fill dozens of pen portfolios -- each dedicated to a different brand.
"I may not use a pen in this portfolio for five years," Cunningham said. "I'll just decide where I want to go visit. Is it the Montblanc world? Is it the Parker pen world? That's kind of the fun of it."
For people hesitant to invest in a single fine pen,
given their notoriety for getting lost or disappearing, let alone begin a pen collection,
Cunningham assures that losing a valuable pen is an occurrence that will only happen once.
"Folks say, 'Gosh, I'd hate to have that nice pen, because I'd wind up losing it.' And I respond, 'You'll just lose one, trust me.'"
- Robbie Clark
David Miller: Empty Beer Bottles
Looking at David Miller's intoxicating collection, you're reminded of the renowned children travelogue song "99 Bottles of Beer" -
only Miller has over 2,000 (empty) bottles of beer on his wall, and he's definitely not taking any down.
For years, Miller has collected beer bottles from around the country, and around the globe -- at press time, the collection included 1,332 domestic bottles from just about every state and 829 foreign bottles, with every continent, save Antarctica, represented.
While a few friends who know of Miller's "beer bottle museum," as he affectionately refers to it, will scout out bottles during their travels, the vast majority of the bottles are ones Miller has had the pleasure of emptying.
Originally, Miller collected coasters from the various pubs he visited while living in Europe, since the cardboard keepsakes were easier to tote than glass bottles. And before the bottle collection went up in Miller's home after he and his wife had an addition built, an enthusiastic friend kept the collection.
"At first they were really housed at my friend's house, because he wasn't married and it was truly a bachelor pad. He had them around the tops of the ceiling, all around his bedroom, living room, everywhere," Miller said. "And then once we had the addition done, about three and a half years ago, then I had a place to put them. Although my wife designated the attic."
Miller relies on local and regional craft beer stores with exotic and thorough selections, such as Liquor Barn and Beer Trappe in Lexington and Jungle Jim's in Cincinnati, to find new additions for his collection. And, looking at his refrigerator, which has a healthy variety of single bottles, it's evident that his attic will soon be overflowing.
"Eventually I'm going to take over my son's room, now that he's moved out," Miller said.
- Robbie Clark
Bonnie Adkisson: Star Trek Autographs
Bonnie Adkisson's collection of "Star Trek" memorabilia includes action figures, costumes, posters and many other trinkets from the various television shows and movies, but her display of nearly 60 personally autographed promo photographs are her favorite pieces from "space, the final frontier."
Adkisson recently returned from the annual Las Vegas Star Trek convention (where she participated in a new Guiness record for the most people in a Star Trek uniform in one room) with her sister, who shares the same fervor for the series. While there, she was able to accumulate a few more autographs from the aging performers who appeared in the original "Star Trek" television series in the '60s.
"My sister and I wish we had t-shirts that said, 'I watched Star Trek in prime time,' because we're all going to get fewer and fewer who did that," Adkisson said.
Trekkies from day one, Adkisson and her sister's affinity for Captain Kirk and Spock and Klingons came from their father, who was so taken with the television show, he once even wrote and submitted an episode. He never heard back, but he did receive an autographed 5x7 photo of Captain Kirk ("That was a gentle rejection," Adkisson said.)
"Our dad was just glued to the television when "Star Trek" was on, so we were in there watching it with him," Adkisson said. "It's been a bonding thing for us with our dad."
Stereotypically, "Star Trek" (and its many incarnations) is a male-centric phenomenon. Aside from the science fiction components, Adkisson appreciates the underlying inspirational messages behind the series.
"The part I like most about the collection is just the stories of "Star Trek," and the meaning of (creator) Gene Roddenberry's vision of "Star Trek" -
the hope of the future and everything will not always turn out right, but there's always some kind of hope in that humanity will be better as we go along."
- Robbie Clark