The Pacific Pin Club, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

OPINION: Pins from the past remain special

Opinion
Richmond Review
Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/52692047.html

The pin was a little brown bear that my grandmother had given it to me after a trip to Moscow in the 1980s.

“Hold on to it, dear,” she said, “It’s a very special pin.” And so it was.

The little brown bear ended up being a Mishka Olympic mascot bear from the widely boycotted Soviet Olympics of 1980.

I found the pin recently in a box of memories along with a hatful of others—a dozen figure skating pins, a miscellany of Canadian provinces souvenirs, and several cute animal pins. Most of these were from my high school athletic competitions and family trips. Others were given to me from relatives, keen to add to my burgeoning collection. I found a Chartered Accountants of Quebec lapel pin, probably given to me by my CA father and a 1990 Portland Rose Festival token, no doubt from my Grandmother who lived in that state.

Then there are the mystery pins, the Santa Rosa Figure Skating Club pin, the New Zealand Flag pin, the London underground souvenir. Where had I picked these up? Who had passed these on to me? This is the fun of pin collecting. I remember coming to figure skating competitions armed with colourful B.C. pins and swapping them with competitors. I’ve never been to New Zealand but someone else had. It was as if through these pins, I’d touched the world, however briefly.

Further into the memory box I found a collection of pins from my 1990s cross-Canada adventure including a verdant Edson, Alberta pin, a few inukshuks, a Vansburg, Alberta pin claiming to be “Home of the Grouch”, and one of my favourites, a clay pin from Grand Manan, New Brunswick.

I’ve left this collecting impulse behind me in my nerdy past, or so I thought. Recently I noticed that my Girl Guide leader uniform had begun to spout a collection of pins from the various camps I’d attended. I guess old habits die hard. I’m not willing to give up collecting yet, I guess.

These pins capture a time in my life, places I’d visited, and people who’d briefly been my friends and acquaintances. Most tokens do not have any monetary value, even the Moscow Olympic pin, but the sentimental value is priceless.

And maybe my grandmother had an idea of this. Perhaps when she told me my Mishka Olympic pin was special, it was not so much the Olympic connection so much as her gift of a memory.

This weekend, more accomplished “pin heads” will gather at the Olympic Oval to swap pins and stories and doubtlessly enjoy many sentimental journeys. The Olympin Collectors Show will be held Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.

Andrea Phillpotts is a writer and teacher based in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of any school district, organization, or school.

Last updated: 15 August 2009