...he is always happy to give a sock monkey a good home.
ck-monkey
From sock monkeys to '50s furniture, Randy's collection seems never-ending. In three hours, I barely had enough time to see everything he had managed to squeeze into three small rooms. Every time my eyes would fix on a different object, Randy would start with another story. As we explored what Randy called neo-folk art, art that is created by people in their leisure time, Randy pulled out rugs, purses and hats made out of thousands of plastic bread bags twisted together. He also showed me how wall art was constructed out of tin cans and how bottle caps were used to construct dolls. Randy points to details in the tin can artwork and says, "When I look at some of these items I see a real obsession, a creative passion that won't be stopped. The creative spirit is just coming out."
Randy says the collecting bug first bit him when he was 10. He would scour dumps, ditches and farm sales with his grandparents looking for anything he found interesting. When he was 13 years old he began collecting Roseville Pottery from the 1920s and '30s. Not too long after he began to get interested in collecting funeral items. Some of his funeral items include a stained embalming table, 1920s baby coffins, post-mortem photos and human skulls. Randy acquired the human skulls and one of the baby coffins from a funeral auction in St. Louis. He paid $100 for the skulls. When he opened the coffin, he found human teeth still clanking around inside. Randy says what fascinates him most about death is how it has changed over time. In the past, the immediate family members at home handled deaths in the family. Now, death is primarily taken care of by funeral homes. Randy says he is interested how society has changed its views, practices and rituals for the deceased "At one point death was really close, you were right there. Now it's so far removed, as corporate funeral homes have homogenized the whole post-mortem experience for the living."
Randy's parents, who live in Lenexa, embraced his ambition as a collector. Randy says his parents realized while he was in high school that he would be a different kid when he convinced them to let him paint his room black. Instead of questioning why, Randy's mother, Kitty, picked up a paintbrush and helped him. But while Randy
coffins, braided bread-bag rugs and religious seashell lamps.
could pierce his ears and surround himself with his black light posters at home, other kids didn't always accept him. His mother believes part of the reason he wasn't accepted was because he was ahead of the times. "He was always reading and educating himself on all topics," she says.
When Randy graduated high school in 1975 from Shawnee Mission West in Overland Park, his parents hoped he would go to college, but he didn't. His father, John, a Lutheran minister, says he never tried to channel Randy into doing something he didn't want to. "We let him be who he was. Randy never cared anyhow if he was keeping up with current culture. That's what made him so fun." Randy's father says some people have a difficult time accepting Randy, but that hasn't inhibited his ability to make a lot of friends. In fact, he's a recognizable face in the Lawrence community. "Every time I'm over the phone is ringing. He's extremely compassionate towards his friends, letting them stay over or helping them out with money," Randy's father says.
Collecting makes Randy some money, but it doesn't pay all the bills. Randy cooks for the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Kansas. During 10 years of working at the house, he has inspired and educated many fraternity members about collecting. Some become so curious about Randy's collections they want to see them for themselves, and Randy is always willing to let them stop by and check things out. Eric Slivinski, Overland Park senior and SAE member, decided to visit Randy's house
with some friends after talking with Randy at Rick's Place, 623 Vermont St. Slinvinski remembers how comfortable Randy's house was despite it being overloaded by collectibles While Slivinski says he didn't see much continuity between Randy's collections, he did
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