Pencil Farm Grew Out Of His Huge Collection

Pencil Farm grew Out of His Huge Collection AG WORLD Ag World 14-5-20 Any way you pencil it out, Harold Stoller, Sterling, Ohio, keeps a lot of pens and pencils on his "pencil farm " - 40,000 of them, to be exact, and no two are alike. Stoller displays his huge collection in display racks that form the sides and roofs of colorful "mini" structures including a miniature double corn crib, a barn, log cabin, covered bridge, and a U.S. flag. He stores his entire collection in a 24 by 32-ft. room above his garage and has displayed parts of the collection at local schools and stores. "I've been collecting pens and pencils for 49 years, ever since I was 8 years old," says Stoller. "I have pencils advertising haircuts for 15 cents and shaves for 10 cents, and I have pencils with the names of all U.S. presidents from Washington to Carter. I get most of my pens and pencils from seed companies, fast-food outlets, restaurants, dairies, savings and loans, banks and car dealers. I'm also a member of the American Pencil Collector's Society and subscribe to `The Pencil Collector', a newspaper through which I trade. I already had 30,000 pencils before I inherited my uncle's collection of nearly 4,000 pencils a few years ago. It's a fun hobby, and I've learned a lot about geography and history from it because whenever I receive a pen or pencil that comes from an unusual place, I always look it up to find out more about it." The pens and pencils in his collection come in a wide variety of shapes and de-signs such as brooms, fish, French fries, ice cream cones and bars, wrenches, bolts, forks, shovels, ears of corn, corn cobs that serve as back scratchers, carrots, cigarettes, rifles, baseball bats, hammers and nails, etc. His most unusual item is a mechanical pencil made in 1940 by the Ford Motor Co. A twist of the barrel displays the name of any Ford car or truck model made that year, as well as information on how to maintain the vehicle - for example, how to set the brakes and clutch, how much gas the fuel tank holds, how much oil the transmission holds. One special section of the collection consists of 1,500 "mechanical pencils" with liquid display bulbs on top with a floating product inside, such as a miniature tire or a chick hatching from an egg. Another contains a coin. When you work the coin into a suggestion box, you get paid for your suggestion because the coin comes out of a slot in the pencil. There's a pencil for people who can't do anything right. It's attached to the world's longest eraser at 4 1/2-ft. There are pencils with erasers on both ends for people who are especially mistake-prone. Stoller is especially fond of a slogan on a pencil issued by an exterminating company. It reads "We can control every pest but a pencil collector." About 5% of the pencils in Stoller's collection are left handed. "The slogans on right-handed pencils read upside-down to left-handed people," notes Stoller. About 500 pencils and pens are capped by miniature products. The miniature double corn crib that's formed out of pencils in the collection is 4 ft. square and 6 ft. high with a 2-ft. wide "driveway" between racks of pencils. There are six racks on each side of the crib, with 75 pencils per rack spaced l/2-in. apart. The roof also contains racks of pencils. Stoller can remove individual racks from the crib, as well as individual pencils from each rack. Stoller glued red, white, and blue pencils to a sheet of plywood to make his pencil flag, which is 22 in. long and 14 in. wide. He glued pencils to sheets of plywood to make the pencil cabin, using carved wood for the shingles. The American Pencil Collector's Society has a national membership of about 300, along with international members from such countries as Japan, Denmark, and Sweden. Some hobbyists have collections which contain more than 100,000 items. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Harold Stoller, 8310 Blough Rd., Sterling, Ohio 44276 (ph 216 669-3676).

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