People Profiles

Table of Contents
Pam Vasilow
Pam Parker
Susann Hoskins

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Pam’s a fan of old glass, including the always drawn to the old glass buttons, and glass paperweights are a particular favorite. But she also enjoys the detail in pictorial buttons, and the colors of bakelite. "I can’t resist the whimsical buttons either, which is why I love realistics," Pam added. "I love the history and stories behind any old button!"

"Gnomes pushing a globe" is close to the top of the list of her "must find" buttons, and "Children’s Circus" is one she added recently to her collection as a favorite. It was also one of her "best finds" as she got it at a flea market. One dealer had a bunch of stuff on and around her car.

"On the hood of her car, in the broiling hot sun, was a gallon-size ziploc bag of junky buttons. They were so dirty and rusty. I picked the bag up, and almost burned my fingers because it was so hot from the hood of her car! It seemed to be full of deteriorating celluloids; nothing special. I almost put it down and walked away, but a feeling came over me to buy it! I really can’t explain that. Anyway, I bought it and dug inside -- in the middle of the bag were some buttons strung together. I noticed that one seemed to be a very nice pierced brass with cut steels as accents, so I pulled it out. Well, there were 4 of those lovelies, and attatched to the end of that string was (my now) favorite button! A large version of "The Children’s Circus"! In perfect condition!!

Pam is thrilled her husband Ted and two sons, Aaron and Stephen, (ages 2 1/2 years and 6 years) are very interested in buttons too. "They help me sort and Stephen likes to pick out the ones he thinks are the "coolest"! We also have one very big dog! "Trixie" is a black labrador retriever/German Shepherd mix. She is pretty good about the buttons -- she hasn’t eaten any yet! (Knowing her, she probably feels that those old bone buttons had better have some meat left on them if she’s going to bother with them!)"

Pam has turned her interest in antiques into her own home-based business. "I just recently launched a small antiques business, "Pam’s Collection Connection", from my computer," she said. "I have always loved old glass, pottery, American dinnerware, and the like. (I have several clients that want to complete and replace pieces to old sets of dishes. Finding odd pieces of obscure dinnerware patterns is something I’m good at!) I am thrilled that I am able to take my collecting hobby and the knowledge that has grown with it and turn it into a profitable business via my computer and the internet. (What an age we live in, when we are able to work out of our houses and still stay home with our children!)

Button Bytes Light Profiles: PAM PARKER of Manchester, New Hampshire

Pam Parker got hooked on buttons after a phone call from her mother. "My mom called me from her Florida home last winter and told me she had just come from a button show. I could not have imagined that this "button" thing could possibly be as thrilling as she described it, but the excitement in her voice was contagious and I asked for more information through her letters. Mom sent me copies of literature and books along with a color copy of the Satsuma buttons that she had decided to collect. Of course, she only wanted the "best"! That was going to be the extent of her collection.

"Since Jan. 97, I have been a true button collector's daughter, gaining interest and knowledge along the way. Mom knows I am a Pooh fan, so she purchased a small collection of Danforth pewter Pooh's along with a Beatrix Potter set for my sister. Mom has since left for Florida for the winter and left her entire collection (complete with books) for me to study this winter. She will attend the Daytona show and hopefully forward new info on. I certainly consider myself a collector now!

Pam says she’s her mother’s daughter: Like her mom, Satsumas are a favorite type of buttons. But she also enjoys the glass paperweights.

She’s only got 300 buttons now, but at the rate she keeps asking friends to share their button boxes, she will have more, soon. The best part of this project is that Pam and her mom "have grown closer with this new hobby."

"After I married and moved into an old farmhouse I started, with my five boys, to visit the old dump on our land, finding buttons and old bottles was our hobby. We now live in a house from the late 1700's and finding buttons and bottles is continuing."

She’s deputized family and friends to hunt buttons when they travel, but, she said, "they wonder why I collect them."

"I love MOP buttons and black glass, stencils and calicoes are moving up fast," she said, and one of her favorite types of buttons are whistles in any type of materinal.

She’s on a hunt for Snow White’s "Seven Dwarves" in different marterials. "I have some plastic and am still looking for glass. Another type of button she hopes to find is a tingue. A highlight of her collection is the four igloos she’s found.