This is very Generation X of me, but I -- and now my kids -- collect Pez dispensers. We have a couple hundred and they fit perfectly on a piece of molding that adorns the walls in their playroom.
I prefer the classic models, like the Incredible Hulk and Yoda, but we have our share of modern Pez characters, like Bob the Builder and Shrek. I had an Uncle Sam dispenser and an eyeball Pez dispenser as a kid, and I've been told both models are quite rare. I don't know what happened to either of these dispensers, and I'm sure I could buy them off eBay, but I'm not that Pez passionate at this point.
Today, I bought a new Pez from the NASCAR series (my 6-year-old son wanted it) and I had the same thought I often do when loading a Pez dispenser: they're annoying to load into the springy sleeve and the candy really isn't very good.
So why do so many people collect Pez dispensers, myself included?
Most likely it has to do with childhood. Maybe we wanted them and our parents wouldn't buy them for us. Maybe it's because they come in so many different forms. Maybe the candy is laced with meth and nicotine and I'm addicted to it.
In any case, while loading up Kai's new racecar Pez dispenser, I had a deep Pez thought: Pez dispensers and bobble heads are from a similar planet. Both are wildly collectable, made of plastic and have an emphasis on the head. One bobbles, one dispenses nasty sugar pellets.
I guess it doesn't really make sense why people collect anything: bobble heads or Pez dispensers or cat whiskers or Norman Rockwell figurines. I guess we do it because we like the way they look, the feelings they evoke and derive pleasure from having scads and scads of something.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
