Genesis Employee Collects Memories, Fun

DAVENPORT, Iowa -- By his own admission, Doug Smith was "a different kind of kid.''

When he got new toys, like Mattel Hot Wheels cars for example, he wouldn't crash them into each other, rub the tires bald playing with them on concrete, or hand-paint them a different color.  He would play with the cars, but then put them back in their original boxes.  He still has hundreds of them, all in mint condition.

He was the kid who dug through the cereal for the premiums packed inside, and kept them sealed. He still has those, too.

He scavenged through ditches and dumps for beer cans. He collected "stacks of wax," once known as records or "45s".

By age 10, he was a flea market entrepreneur who would buy and sell items.

Nearly 40 years later, Smith is still collecting.  His collections that he estimates total 200,000 pieces make the Smith family home a fascinating journey into the pop culture of the 1950s and 60s, but the most priceless items date back much farther.

Smith, who is a BioMed technician for Genesis Medical Center, is a collector, newspaper columnist for the Quad-City Times and author.  His first book Davenport, Postcard History Series, is on sale locally, and in the Genesis Medical Center Gift Shops.  It is filled with favorite images of the more than 5,000 early photographs, stereoviews, postcards and ephemera (paper collectibles) of Davenport, from his personal collection.

"The book and my Davenport collection kind of worked out naturally.  Being from Davenport, and liking old things and history, there was a natural interest in doing a book like this,'' Smith said.

Included in Smith's book are several photos of St. Luke's and Mercy hospitals, the hospitals from which Genesis Health System was formed.

Celebrity Year Books A New Interest
One of Smith's relatively new interests is collecting old school yearbooks, especially those with photos of famous people and celebrities.  He has collections of all of the Davenport high school and junior high yearbooks and has a copy of every University of Iowa yearbook ever printed. 

In his collection of yearbooks is a Dixon High School annual from the 1920s.  Future President Ronald Reagan signed the book in two places for a classmate.  He wrote a personal message to the girl using his nickname, "Dutch'' Reagan, for one of the signatures.

"What I've started doing is contacting high schools and just ordering a year book.  That's what I did to get the senior yearbook of LeBron James,'' Smith said of the young National Basketball Association star.

If Smith looked at his collection only for its monetary value, he wouldn't have 200,000 items.  He doesn't even know what might be in 250 boxes of stuff in his house.

"I couldn't sell everything I have in 10 lifetimes,'' he said.

For someone who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, Smith's house is a amazing museum.  He has working jukeboxes from the 50s and 60s loaded with all of the music from the era.  He has about 100,000 vinyl records. He has a mint condition Schwinn Grey Ghost "krate bike,'' the rarest and coolest "stingray'' bike of the 1960s and early 1970s, and an early 50s "Black Phantom'' bicycle with balloon tires.

Part of the value of Smith's treasures is that they work. The skills that he uses to maintain and calibrate medical equipment for Genesis Medical Center serve him well in his collecting.  A jukebox that only takes up space isn't much fun.  Smith only wants jukeboxes that he can make work the way they did originally.

When he was showing off his house recently, Smith plugged in the Wurlitzer juke box and "The Wanderer'' by Dion and the Belmonts fell onto the turntable perfectly; like the box was sitting in the corner of a 1960s diner or roadhouse tavern.

"You may have a jukebox, but a lot of people are either too lazy or too busy to get it in working condition and it's harder and harder to hire someone to do it for you,'' he explained.  "Fortunately, I can usually fix and maintain whatever I've bought.''

Different Times, Different Interests
In some ways, Smith is part of a disappearing generation, although he is still relatively young. In this era of video games, computers and hundreds of television choices, most kids no longer rummage through ditches and flea markets for treasures.  They no longer spend hours outside finding their own entertainment, which in Smith's case, was collecting.  Meanwhile, Smith has his own network of scavengers out looking for pieces for him.

"It was a different era. We spent a lot of time outside looking for whatever we could find in gullies, neighborhoods, old dumps,'' he explained. "We went to flea markets and looked for items and sold others. Kids today aren't doing that.''

It is probably impertinent to ask, but we did ask.  Smith said the value of his various collections is millions of dollars.

We also asked what he believes will be "hot'' in 20 to 30 years.

"It will probably still be toys. Toys have always been hot and I assume they always will be.  Look for toys that kids are playing with now.  Not video games, which won't have any value, but toys.  Buy the popular toy, leave it in the box unopened and maybe in 30 years it will be worth a couple hundred dollars,'' he said.

"Or take the money and save it and it will probably we worth more in 30 years than the toy,'' he laughed.

But Smith is always looking for something interesting and unique.  If anyone happens to find a Dan Patch riding toy in grandma's garage, Smith would like to talk.  By the way, it's on Page 55 of his book.

(Doug Smith's Web site is www.dougsqccollectibles.com)

View a news video of Doug that appeared on KWQC - Made in the QCA.