Hobbyist’s Collection of Paperweights Can Also Be Used to Decorate
Once you learn what they’re called, there’s really not much to say about paperweights.
Unless you happen to be Sue A. Hawley, 43, of Buena Park, who has 56 of them, an inheritence from her mother, Mary Saner, who spent 30 years collecting paperweights, prowling hundreds of curio and gift shops.
“I didn’t realize there would be very many people interested in seeing paperweights,” said Hawley, a secretary, who is exhibiting them in the Cypress College Library. “I guess a lot of people collect and enjoy them,” she said, still amazed at the number of comments she has received about the colorful collection.
Hawley said she hasn’t researched paperweights and knows little about them, but not to worry. “After you use them to hold something in place on a desk,” she said, “most can be used as colorful decorations. The longer you look at them the more you can see.”
But as a remembrance, the paperweights take on special meaning. “They were important to my mother, and that makes them important to me,” Hawley said. “Over the years, mother would add to her collection, but they all had to be unusual.”
The last paperweight she bought looks similar to an Easter egg. “ . . . Now it seems when I’m out, I’m looking to add to the collection, but it’s hard to find ones that are different from what I have.”
The paperweights are in various colors and shapes and made from glass and stone. “They cost in a range of $10 to $20,” she said, “although I’ve seen some in gift shops that cost $200 and more.”
Hawley said her mother collected the paperweights so gradually that she didn’t realize how large the collection had grown. And now that Hawley’s doing the collecting and visiting gift and curio shops, she “can see how it happened.”
Eddie Gilbert, 57, of Fullerton wanted another wife after his 19-year marriage ended, “but I never found anyone who seemed right for me.”
So he subscribed to a mail-order bride service and after writing to 225 women, he met Conchita Alberce Eria, 47, from the Philippines, who was shopping for a mail-order husband.
“Conchita had written to 180 prospective husbands, including me,” said Gilbert, a security officer at Disneyland. “I met her and things worked out for both of us. I’m delighted with the results.”
Although it only cost $200 for the mail-order bride service, “It really became expensive because of traveling costs,” said Gilbert, who decided he would marry an Asian woman. “It’s different today because you don’t marry someone you haven’t met.”
He said that while many friends thought his courtship method was different, “it became more like a typical romance.”
They married in November. “Everything is going fine,” Gilbert said.
After Ronald and Patricia Wilson of Fountain Valley donated their $12,000 Arabian horse named Chance for an auction to help raise about $100,000 for the financially strapped educational television station JCET (Joint Council for Educational Technology) in Huntington Beach, the fund-raisers needed a meaningful slogan.
Cleverly, they picked “Take a Chance,” and Program Director Linda Carpenter said: “This is our last chance. If we don’t raise the money, we won’t be around much longer.”
First, Dr. Robert L. Pike, 42, an oral surgeon and a spokesman for the Orange County Dental Society, tosses in: “We’re the one professional group that’s trying to put ourselves out of business.”
Then he throws in these startling statistics and statements.
Dental decay is a national epidemic.
One hundred percent of tooth decay is preventable.
Ninety-eight percent of all adults have one or more teeth missing or have dental decay.
Sugar is the major cause of decay.
Pike, of Newport Beach, tells anyone who will listen that adults and children should be aware of such “sneaky sweets” as prepared sauces, salad dressing, unsweetened breakfast cereals and lunch meat, part of the sugar items listed in the society’s Dental Disaster List.
Other tooth decayers are candy bars, he said, “like the ones you buy from candy machines on high school campuses and (at) some nursery schools.”
Acknowledgment--Marina High School Senior Sabrina Goodman of Huntington Beach is one of 20 students nationwide who will receive a $5,000 scholarship from Horatio Alger Assn. of Distinguished Americans in May in Houston.
