YCBCNEWS06

A Letter from the Editor

June's meeting was held at Mary Markley's home in Hollis. Those attending were Ruth Leipold, Ruth Harju, June Mitchell, Clayton and Dottie Locke, Deborah Byron, Susan Brown, Leona Hanson, Lois Johnson, Evelyn Waterhouse, Doris Havu, Doris Brown, Jackie Neuts, Kathy Porter, Em Bentley, and Mary and John Markley.

We didn't have a meeting in July so if anyone is checking the dates on the newsletters, you will notice there is no issue for July. This month I am starting a new column entitled "How I Became a Button Nut." Each month I hope to include a club member's story of how she or he became interested in collecting buttons. I'll start.

Being an avid crossword puzzler, I decided to try my hand at writing one instead of just filling in other people's work. What better topic than buttons! I have composed two, one of which appears in this month's newsletter for those of you who may also enjoy doing crossword puzzles. If some of the words seem a little offbeat, well, they are all in the dictionary and I used what would fit. Filling Will Shortz' shoes is not easy.

How I Became a Button Nut

By Emmalyn Bently

When I was very young I remember visiting my paternal grandmother in Pennsylvania and being fascinated by her curio cabinet, which was filled with many objects of interest, including buttons. When I was about 12 she gave me 15 of those buttons. At the time they interested me for their uniqueness and scenes. I was especially in love with the one of the "princess crying goodby to the prince getting in the swan boat" and the little cherub curled up sleeping. I couldn't believe such tiny buttons could be so detailed.

I put the buttons in a little cedar box. I don't remember what I did with it when I went away to college and then to Boston for four years before meeting and marrying my husband. But the little cedar box later found its way to my sewing box and there it stayed for some 35 years. Every once in a while I would take it out and admire the buttons.

When I was in my early 60s I looked at the buttons one day and thought it was a shame they were hidden away from view. I foolishly sewed them onto a hat, which I wore often, exposing the buttons to the sun, rain, and salty mist. But I loved that hat.

Then my Dad gave me a book he had picked up at a yard sale. It was The Maine Charm String. As I read it, more than once I said "I have that button!!!" And I soon recognized my crying princess as Elsa from Lowengren.

I immediately took the buttons off my hat (unfortunately, the rain had marred a couple of them) and started my journey of collecting buttons. The rest is history. I met Ruth Leipold at a button show and became a member of our club, and I learned to use ebay! I now have an extensive collection numbering in the thousands. I wish my grandmother were alive. What fun we would have discussing and admiring each others' buttons.

BUTTON TYPES

ACROSS

1. Alloy of copper and zinc
5. Soft, silvery-white metal
8. What 1 or 5 across is
13. Opera button
14. Related to ships or shipping
15. Solitary
16. Have understanding
17. Run for exercise
18. __ Hari
19. Mr. __, a talking horse
20. Abbreviation meaning the same as et al
22. Symbol for the element aluminum
24. Initial point (abbrev)
25. Automated Merchant Reporting System (abbrev)
27. Containing little or no fat
30. What you get when testing a button with a hot needle (3 wds)
32. Hindu month
33. Electronic device
35. Japanese button
36. With indefinite article, saying attributed to Jesus
37. Scum
39. City SE of Dresden, Germany
40. Fasten a kind of jacket (4 wds)
44. Abnormal respiratory sound
45. Thomas Hardy’s __ d'Urberville
47. Kind of record
48. Printer’s measure
50. Symbol for the metallic element erbium
51. Commanding officer(abbrev)
52. Too
55. Nail-head __ shank
57. The __ Festival (Oriental button subject)
59. Small marsh bird
60. Relating to an English royal house
61. Author __ Morrison
62. Common back on a Weinman paperweight
63. Last name of a paperweight maker
64. Type of carved button

DOWN

1. Pastry chef
2. Orange peel
3. Much __ About Nothing
4. Observed
5. __ Mahal
6. Thin, stamped, and tinted celluloid button
7. Old horse or annoy
9. Stately tree
10. __ __ tee
11. Against
12. What a frog does
20. Pairs dance on ancient boat (2 wds)
21. Sugar suffix
22. Pub offering
23. First and last name of a Bohemian glass button maker
25. First initial and last name of contributor to WTC memorial contribution
26. Military Affiliate Radio System’s place (2 wds) (abbrev)
28. Musical direction meaning slowly (pl)
29. Sign on boys’ tree house
30. With indefinite article, southeastern European
31. With regard to Yoko (2 wds)
32. Conjunction
34. Any of various nucleic acids
38. Theresa Rarig specialty design
41. Original equipment manufacturer
42. Consumed
43. Kaleidoscope buttons are made of this
46. Paperweight maker William __
48. Farmers do it
51. A thin rod of glass used to trim buttons
53. __ Lanka
54. Paddle
55. The Irish would frequent one
56. Prefix denoting absence of
57. Dep.
58. __ … Riding the Butterfly button

Answers in September issue of newsletter