Our Fridge Magnets

I was a little sad when a refrigerator we bought a few years ago had a front door that would not permit us to affix our magnets. What kind of manufacturer would consent to such a cruelty? I wondered. I was only moderately appeased when I discovered that the side of the appliance would accept our magnets. So we formed a line of them, top to bottom, and felt much better about the world and fridge manufacturers.

As you might well expect, our magnets are pretty much ... nerdy. We acquired most of them on our literary journeys--gift shops at the homes of notable writers, the Stratford Theater Festival, and the like. In the picture below you can see a typical assortment.

On top (left) is young Hawthorne; beside him is Mr. Shakespeare (according to one theory). Below is Frankenstein's creature (as pictured on a 1997 U.S. postage stamp), alongside him ("it"?) is the "official" magnet of the 2004 Stratford season. Below the creature--Wonder Woman (forget where we got that one?!?), a life-long favorite of our grandson Carson (6). Whenever he comes over, he invariably removes that one and carries it around with him. No further comment.

Next to Wonder Woman is a magnet featuring the 1964 U.S. postage stamp that bore a likeness of Shakespeare; when that one appeared, I was a Hiram College student--a student, by the way, who avoided the college's Shakespeare class. (To be blunt: I was chicken. Shakespeare had narcotized me in high school. Things have changed, to say the least.)

Below Wonder Woman and Wonder Writer is Sunnyside, the home of Washington Irving near Tarrytown, NY; the Hudson River runs alongside--as do the rail tracks that initially annoyed Irving (disturbing his bucolic tranquility), but he changed his mind when he realized how swiftly he could get into NYC, some thirty miles south.

At your leisure, you can click on/enlarge the other photographs just to see who has earned a place on our fridge. An impressive array of folks and places. And every time I look at them (often while I'm removing from the fridge something I have no business removing--and consuming), I remember so many lovely times with Joyce as we roamed the literary world, discovering.