mickey mice

Night heat creaks away
On little metal mouse feet
The cold slithers in

— Smith, 2010

Going to try to sell my old Mickey Mouse toys.

Mother Dwarf and Pappy worked the flea markets in Michigan and Las Vegas through the 1970s and 80s. Mom made ceramics, and Dad made molds for her to make some of them from. They sold her ceramic output at flea markets for 20 years; and each time they went, Mom would scour the stalls for Mickey Mouse toys and send them to me. I’ve no idea why she thought I wanted a collection of Mickey Mice; in fact I didn’t before she started it — I’m more of a Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, Daffy Duck kind of guy — but now I’m glad she did.

Anyway, see if I can sell these for some mad money. Some are very old, some not, some broken, chipped, faded, used hard, some not so old and not so used, and some are really very strange, especially the stuffed ones which sometimes approach bear-mice mutants.

Hard to count this jumble on the table but seems to be around 200 items, including a Popeye, Gumby, Bugs Bunny, Smokey the Bear, 2 Snoopys, 7 Donald Ducks, working Mickey Mouse and Garfield the Cat telephones, and many Minnies.

Figure the number and variety should act as bait for a bid from Big Fun up on Coventry. If not, or I don’t get a decent offer, I’ll keep them until next go-round.

“M-I-C . . . See you real soon . . . K-E-Y . . . Why? Because we like you . . . M-O-U-S-E” sang Jimmy Dodd and the Mouseketeers at the end of each daily episode of The Mickey Mouse Club which I watched from 1955 through 57 (the original show broadcast on ABC TV from 1955-59).