the kachina collector

Virginia comes from a line of collectors—her father bought entire houses just to store the stuff he bought at auction. She's trying to tone it down, but she is very proud of her collections of Native American memorabilia (she has Indian blood, she says), of her elaborate display of earrings in a case in her laundry room, of her storeroom of canned goods from milk to pork from her farm. "I wasn't raised poor, you know," she says. "Maybe later on. . ." She married a collector too. Randy, a Hatfield (yes, those Hatfields), collects old cars, animals, trailers, houses and people. The couple owns the abandoned house next door, and they appear to have collected me as well. Randy helped me put my new well in, and Virginia helps me clean up bugs. She was dressed so prettily, having just come from church, I had to take her picture.