Collectors:
Click here to read about more collectorsForever Mickey
Michelle Frick’s lifetime love affair
By Donna Evans
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“The men were going to wear Mickey Mouse ties and cummerbunds, the bridesmaids were dressed in black and red, the cake was the Magic Kingdom castle, the glasses for the head table had Mickey and Minnie stems, there was a Mickey Mouse ice sculpture, the top of the wedding cake was Mickey and Minnie—everything was Mickey,” Frick says.
Frick’s mother had even booked Mickey and Minnie characters to appear at the reception. And, of course, a carriage was to carry the bride and groom up to the door.
“It started with my mother buying me little ceramic figurines to collect, but now I only buy things I can use,” Frick says. And by that she means everything she can use.
A girl with a wedding in mind has to have a hope chest, and if Mickey is her hero, it’s a hope chest with Mickey on it. Frick chose the all-white Mickey china and Mickey stainless cutlery for her table. She has a Mickey rocking chair and quilt rack, Mickey shower curtain, hooks and towels, and pays for it all out of a Mickey checkbook.
“From the ceramic figures I narrowed it to only things that I can use. I really started in my twenties. Before then I bought clothes and got small things for Christmas,” she says. “Now it’s bigger things—I get the catalog and I buy things right when they come out. You have to, because they discontinue them quickly.”
Eventually Frick’s trips to Disney World revolved around the Disney 200, a car race that gave her something in common with that first fiancé, who had something of an Indy 500 obsession. They combined their two collections for their apartment, where he had an entire room filled with Indy-Mickey paraphernalia.
“I also got everything Mickey for the Christmas tree—lights, ornaments, the tree topper,” Frick said. “And I have a crystal Mickey hanging in my car. I even had my old engagement ring re-set into a Mickey head.”
It’s not surprising that this young woman looks for functionality, even in her collection. She has been working two or three jobs since high school, and even with her Mickey purchases accumulated enough in her bank account to help a friend buy a house.
“I have no idea how much I’ve spent, or why I do it,” Frick says. “And people would give me things. I’ve cleaned out a lot of things that I wouldn’t put in my house, or that aren’t really functional.”
What is functional includes a bedroom set and bedding, a large wall mirror, a rocking chair, phone, desk set, a lamp, even a barbecue set.
“I do plan on using it when I get my own place,” she says. Currently Frick lives in the house she helped her girlfriend (who is a single mother) purchase.
“I just figure, what’s the good of having it if you can’t use it,” she says. Someday, after a wedding that might well take place in Disney World, Frick will have children who, she says, will have Mickey rooms and Mickey clothes. And when they sit down to breakfast, it will be Mickey waffles from the Mickey waffle iron.
“I’m strange. At least some people might think so,” says the woman who can’t figure out why she has stuck with her love of Mickey all these years. Maybe it’s a “first love, lasting love,” thing.
But what are collections if not pieces of our fantasy life? Frick has faced down her share of problems—boyfriend problems, the illnesses of both parents, and helping to run her father’s former heating and air conditioning business, now owned by her and her brother. When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping—the difference with Frick is, she goes shopping for Mickey stuff, that’s all.
Donna I. Evans is a writer and public relations specialist based in Western New York.
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