Collecting the Future; or Dusty Artifacts of a Teen Trekker

I don't recall exactly when or how I came to be interested in science fiction. Most probably it was in 1976 or 1977, shortly after I had moved from the small town of Barry's Bay to the bustling megalopolis (or so it seemed to my eyes at the time) of Ottawa, the nation's capital. By the time of my tenth birthday in October 1978 the obsession was in full bloom, and for the next decade I voraciously read books, watched movies and purchased paraphernalia to feed my appetite for the fantastic. I even attended a convention or two.

In terms of authors, my clear favourite was Isaac Asimov, most famous for his Foundation series and his robot stories. In terms of television there was another clear winner -- Star Trek. Or, Star Trek: The Original Series as it has since been disambiguated.

I certainly wouldn't consider myself a hardcore collector -- far from it -- but over the years I have amassed a nice little collection of books, magazines, comics, cards, and toys. And what good is the Internet if not to wrench these dusty artifacts out of their dank basement dwellings and parade them before our global village of 21st century net-heads?

No doubt there are dozens, if not hundreds, of similar sites out there already. Yet the desire to share my collection and the stories which accompany it has overcome my fear of redundancy. My Mother has always had a talent for creating scrapbooks and annotated photo albums; I suppose this is my electronic equivalent.

This blog will focus on my Star Trek collectibles, though I'll no doubt throw in a few additional items along the way. I readily admit this is for the most part an exercise in personal nostalgia. Best case I'm hoping that a few like-minded GenXers out there may smile along with me.