Storytelling Sunday: The one about Hester the Hoarder!

Sian's story over on her blog for Storytelling Sunday made me think of a girl I used to know (well actually I still do, but it sounded better in the past tense...) and who I used to rent a little hovel with in Leeds when I moved up to do my teacher training at Leeds Uni. We used to called her Hester Wildchild, as this was her teenage nickname and I believe that there was even a fan club in her honour, but one thing is for sure there was never a dull moment with her around!
She was, however, a huge hoarder. She also had the smallest little box room in our house and it was always spilling with all her shoes and clothes - she had a bit of a shopping habit and worked in the town centre and would often return laden with bags full of treasures! She liked to keep lots of memorablilia and not scrappable stuff like napkins or leaflets - big things for her small room.
So when she came home from the cinema one night with a life sized cardboard cutout of Ben and Jerry's we thought that it was a big joke and she would get rid of it. However when we went into her room to sing into our hairbrushes along with Whitney we would have to contort ourselves around this sign. Plus when she came to move a year on the sign went with her - rather than onto the rubbish heap which is where I would have put it! It was similar to the one pictured below - I seem to have a few pictureless years when I didn't have a camera clamped to my hand the whole time and this was that time. I guess I was too busy having fun!

The second 'little' momento she aquired during this year was a temporary bus stop - similar to the one below but more red and slightly smaller but a lot heavier. It was the heaviest thing you have ever picked up. Although we were in our twenties we were no longer students and you know stealing road signs is a student type thing to do...but she seemed to *find* this on a night out. It became her jewellery stand and again when it came to moving day a year on she could not be parted with this item of memorabilia.

Whilst living with her we both met the men we were to marry. She kept many interesting items from their dates - including the empty Ben and Jerry's tub from the first tub they shared together. I think if she was to be a scrapbooker she would have produced very chunky albums and I think her husband is as bemused by the random clutter as we all were.
But I did help her move into her new marital home and was glad to help her load a very heavy item off the removal truck. Yep you guessed it. The bus stop. Well where would she keep her jewellery otherwise...?