Collectors:
Click here to read about more collectorsSomething to call her own
By Gwen Ito
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Even as a child, Alexa Petro Christopher knew that good things really do come in small packages. She remembers visiting the dentist for the first time when she was just three. After her cleaning, he rewarded her with a new toothbrush and a rubber animal. Especially taken with the tiny animal, the child soon discovered a store near her grandmother’ s house where she could get more. It had a big bin with the same adorable rubber animals, Christopher explains. Between visits to the dentist and her own shopping sprees over the next few years, her collection of rubber novelties grew.
She says this specialized starter collection of eighty rubber animals is probably what sparked her interest in erasers, which she began collecting in the fourth grade. There were the basic erasers like the pink pearl and square green erasers, as well as the stretchy charcoal kind used by artists. ” Anything that was an eraser was fair game,” she laughs. A purist, Christopher declined ones that were used or torn, and kept any wrapped erasers in their original cellophane packaging. If an eraser seemed especially useful, then she got two of them: one to add to her collection and another to use.
When Sanrio’s Hello Kitty product line made it big in the United States, young Alexa fixated on the tiny erasers based on the Japanese character. What made the Hello Kitty additions to her collection especially attractive was the inclusion of translated messages that were “always a little bit off.” For Christopher, the broken English was a spectacular bonus —“like getting the comics in the gum,” she smiles.
A girlfriend in grade school also had an eraser collection. “I think we influenced each other,” the erstwhile collector states. “But I’m sure I started collecting first.” The two would help each other by scouting out the best places to shop for erasers. The old Hengerer’s store, for example, was a wonderful source for Hello Kitty imports.
While her parents neither discouraged nor encouraged her singular passion, Christopher recalls her mom suggesting at first that she collect something more conventional.
“I guess she wanted me to collect something of lasting value, like stamps or coins,” she says a bit wistfully. But the girl with the distinctive fetish persevered. This eraser collection—as much about identity as it was about tiny things in cute packaging—became a way to explore and express her autonomy. Whenever she felt the urge to buy new items for her collection, she simply hopped on her bike and rode to the nearest store. Most of the purchases were made with the money she earned from babysitting. “The idea that I was in charge—it was my money, my interest—really made me feel good.”
The eraser fan confesses that she became so attached to her collection, she even thought about being buried with it.
As Christopher got older, her tastes became more discriminating. Having purchased nearly every Hello Kitty eraser available, she began to look for more sophisticated erasers that emphasized vibrant colors and unusual designs. She describes, for example, a clear rectangular eraser with a picture of a French Pierrot doll in the middle.
By the time Christopher graduated from high school, her parents seemed more supportive of their youngest daughter’s unusual collection. In 1989 they brought back an eraser they had found during a trip to China. Around that same time, an uncle sent her some erasers from London.
When she went off to college, the collection stayed behind. In fact, the erasers remained in Carole and Bill Petro’s house until their youngest daughter was married and living in her own home.
While she hasn’t taken a formal inventory in about a decade, Christopher figures that she must have around seven hundred erasers. At least half of these are scented. “There’s grape, vanilla, bubblegum, and other scents,” she explains. The erasers are still stored in their special boxes made of tin or clear plastic. And while she’s never wanted to sell her erasers, Christopher has occasionally wondered if a museum or archivist would be interested in the collection.
Today the house she shares with her husband, Tom, is characterized by tasteful décor and furniture. She has picked out the elegant props in her adult life using the same meticulous approach she used to create her childhood eraser collection. Imagining what would happen if a fire were to destroy her home, Alexa Petro Christopher makes this confession: “I can live without my things, but I would be sad if my eraser collection were gone. To me, it represents the energy and effort I put into it as a kid.”
Gwen Ito is a free-lance writer living in Buffalo.
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