Thanks Dan. It began when John took our elder daughter back to the UK in 2009 when he turned 50 and she was 15. His godfather took him to an airshow which reignited his passion for the WWII warbirds. They were selling prints and models in marquees and he came home with books of the prints and pointed out a couple that he liked. They were all limited edition and signed by the veterans themselves.
I had just started on eBay so had the capacity to purchase the things he wanted. John's parents were both WWI veterans (his Dad was a paratrooper and his mother in the Women's Land Army). We had some of their memorabilia in a cabinet and a few prints and models in our games room.
Eventually bought more stuff and John decided to build a special room for it. He's a builder and we're on a farm with 200 acres so away he went. The zoning wasn't suitable for a commercial venture so he did it without council approval which came back to bite us later.
I'm not overly interested in military history but I am interested in people and their stories. I like to buy items that are named so that I can research the people behind the objects and find out what they did before, during and after the various wars.
Not everything is military in nature. We have games, toys, dolls, jewellery, autograph books, artwork, posters, letters, postcards, photos and so on. One of my favourite things is a WWII era snakes and ladders game. It is brightly coloured with squares of red, blue and yellow but the fun part is that it's based on the virtues. Quarrelsomeness, covetousness, unpunctuality and frivolity will all get you sliding down a snake whereas penitence, kindness and self-denial will see you climb a ladder.
Our daughters have both left home now so we could be suffering with the empty nest syndrome. However, we have people coming and going all the time so we barely have time to worry about that. We also have a shared interest/passion/obsession that has enabled us to meet the most amazing people including veterans, researchers, authors, curators and ordinary folk who all have their own stories to tell.
Needless to say, if any of you get over this way we'd love to show you through. Hope I haven't bored you all rigid!
