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STRANGE AND UNUSUAL MUSEUMS by Mary Haegele

© Mary Haegele

Every museum has a story to tell; a piece of history; a niche to fill in humanity's never ending quest to organize and tag everything in our environment. While most museums concentrate on the history of the locale in which the museum is situated, we will find others that go beyond this to look at the strange and unusual in our world. Let us examine some of these museums - the museums of the strange or museums with unusual collections.

The British Lawnmower Museum http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/square... has been in existence for over thirty years. Got an old lawmower that won't work? Bring it to the museum and they will restore it for you. Situated in Southport, Lancashire in England, "keeping gardening history alive" could be their motto. Lawnmowers from 1830 onwards are on display. There is a hilarious account of the origins of lawnmower racing in the '70's. If you are a celebrity this museum wants your lawnmower! Email gf86@dial.pipex.com

Here is a museum you might think would not take up much space. The Bead Museum - www.ariz.com/beads in Prescott, Arizona has beads - beads made from human bones, beads that were used as money; very old as well as very new beads. Beads from all over the world have found their way into this unusual museum.

Personally, I think the history of the banana is more important than lawnmowers or beads! There is one heck of a bunch of banana items in this museum. www.banana-club.com/museum.htm. Since 1972 Ken Bananister has been well - bananas about bananas. He was presented with a roll of Chiquita Banana stickers - 10,000 by his office manager. Her husband unloaded bananas at the Long Beach CA docks. According to Ken when I interviewed him, he started handing out the stickers for fun at photo shows and conventions across the U.S. and in Germany. Then people started sending him things about bananas until he finally had to rent a place. This was in 1976. He has over 17,000 plus contributions in the museum. He started his banana club which has to date more than 9,000 members. He refers to himself as T.B. - top banana. The Banana museum should be on everyone's itinerary.

Where would you expect a volkswagen museum to be? If you were going to say Germany you would be right. But Sweden has one too. Actually, Holbrens Volkswagen Museum is touted as the "world's largest private Volkswagen museum." Situated in Palsboda, Sweden, it proudly exhibits one volkswagen vehicle for each of the years 1949 - 1975. (How could you tell?) At any rate it is definitely worth a look. It has more than volkswagens but this is its signature vehicle. www.algonet.se/~linkan/eindex.htm. The site is in English and Swedish. Email - linkan@algonet.se

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