Ardent collectors relish hunt for bizarre items

Griff Akins shows off his collection of around 800 Pez dispensers, including this rare eyeball Pex that dates to the 1960s. (BILLY KINGSLEY / THE TEN

By TRACY PULLEY | For The Tennessean

What makes a home unique? It's not just the couch or the curtains that makes one split-level ranch different from the one next door.

It's about the personality of the homeowner and the way he expresses himself. For collectors, a home can become a multi-room display case, depending on the size of the obsession.

Nashville has its share of collectors both great and small. As long as they don't run out of space, the acquisition continues. Meet some of the Midstate's most fanatical collectors.

Griff Akins started collecting Pez dispensers by accident. He bought his first, a Bugs Bunny version, en route to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and found himself besieged by commentary from international tourists about the candy dispenser. "Although many could not speak English, they all recognized Pez," Akins says.

The experience sparked his interest in the product, and he began collecting Pez dispensers. At a dollar or less, Akins finds it an inexpensive hobby, although his collection now numbers more than 800. His favorite item? "An actual press used to make Pez dispensers in Austria," Akins says. He incorporated the hobby into his wedding with a groom's cake shaped like a giant Pez dispenser, topped with custom-made bride and groom dispensers.

He's not done collecting yet; Akins has his eye on a $2,700 Make-A-Face dispenser. "Someday it will be mine."

Like many brides, Areeda Schneider-Stampley received a cookbook as a wedding gift years ago. The manual, Betty Crocker's Dinner for Two, was to be the first in a succession of cookbooks acquired over the years in an effort to catalog small-town cooking traditions. "The origin of the recipes and people who submitted them shed light on a town's genealogy," Schneider-Stampley says. "You just don't have that in the big-volume cookbooks put out today by 'cookbook corporations.' "

Today, Schneider-Stampley's collection includes almost 300 regional cookbooks, plus one of her own, Areeda's Southern Cooking, published in 2005. Her interest paid off recently in the form of a double Best In Show win at the 2007 Tennessee State Fair (for a chocolate meringue pie and fried peach pie).

"Our food history, along with our country, culture and music history, are very important to share with generations to come," Schneider-Stampley says, "and should be kept in its true form in order to maintain its value and our identity."

WSMV-Channel 4's Snowbird is beloved by most Nashvillians, but he holds a special appeal to two groups: students and teachers. "When Snowbird says we don't have to go to school, we all love it," says Rita Powers, a special education teacher at Coffee County Middle School in Manchester.

So Powers made it her personal quest to win a Snowbird giveaway the first year it was offered. When she won a red Snowbird scarf, "I was so excited, and so were my students," Powers says. "What started out as something fun to get us through a long winter turned into a big deal."

Powers now has "too many Snowbirds to count," everything from mugs to pencils to a lunchbox to a Snowbird cookie jar. Her favorite is a small stuffed Snowbird wearing a T-shirt, a personal gift from the creator of Snowbird (who she met on a visit to Snowbird's birthplace at Pro Kids Productions in Nashville).

"They put it on the morning announcements when I won my Snowbird item this year," Powers says. "The kids get so excited."

Ron Clarke is not a drinker. Occasionally he'll enjoy a sangria, but that's about the extent of his imbibing. He's a regular at the liquor store, though.

Clarke collects miniature liquor bottles, a hobby that began by accident about 25 years ago. "My mother came down from Canada," Clarke says, "and wanted to pick up some mini liquor bottles to take back to my brothers." She sent Clarke to make the purchase. At the store, the owner asked whether he was a collector. "He told me that people collect all the different bottles. . . . I ended up buying 35 and forgot the ones for my mother."

Today Clarke's collection numbers 2,800 unopened miniature liquor bottles, housed in 10 wall cases throughout his home. The bottles are shaped like golf balls, books, the Eiffel Tower; there's even a Venus de Milo liquor bottle.

Clarke's hobby gives him a good excuse to take a day trip. "I'll go to Memphis, Chattanooga, Clarksville and hit all the liquor stores along the way," Clarke says. "You've got to make the trip worthwhile."

Little Sarah Rumsey's father traveled for his job, but Sarah didn't mind so much because he always brought her a present upon his return.

"He bought me Steiff animals," Rumsey says, "but he never paid more than $5 because he thought that was way too much money."

Today Rumsey's collection of 260 Steiff animals is worth quite a bit more than the purchase price, but she wouldn't dream of selling.

She has everything from okapi to ladybugs to squirrels, all kept behind glass in display cases at home.

Her favorites, Ted and Teddy, are the most worn, having traveled with Sarah to boarding school in North Carolina and Peabody College here in Nashville.

The collection even led to a career for Rumsey, who ran a mail-order teddy bear business for 12 years before retiring.

Because Susie Watts is a food and beverage manager, it's not surprising that her collection is drink-related. Instead of collecting shot glasses, though, Watts settled on something unusual: draft beer handles.

"I have about 67 handles mounted to the wall in my kitchen," Watts says. "When guys walk in, they stand and stare."

Watts stumbled onto her hobby in 1996 while working at the Opryland Hotel.

"They discontinued a Jack Daniels beer, and the distributor asked if I wanted the handle," Watts says.

"Now I get them every time we quit serving a beer."

Watts' collection includes handles shaped like Sumo wrestlers, guitars and boomerangs; her favorite resembles a garden hose, complete with nozzle.

"I've never heard of anyone else with a collection like mine," Watts says, "but I'm sure there's some out there."