Faine Greenwood normally posts about drones and data, but in 2021 posted a two-part story of fridge magnets: who invented them, who makes them, and why they matter. I’ve been reading Wendy A. Woloson’s Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America, and Greenwood’s article was an excellent complement. I absolutely related to her thoughts about souvenirs and memory, and her poignant recognition that all of those associations will be lost as soon as we’re gone. It’s the way of just about everything we acquire, really. I don’t have wall-to-wall magnets like the most devoted collectors, but the ones I do have are laden with memory. I still have one of the 1970s Peanuts fridge magnets Greenwood mentions in passing, of a joyous dancing Snoopy my dad bought for me on a work trip to the U.S. in 1976. It’s followed me halfway around the world and been with me fifty years. As souvenirs go, fridge magnets are relatively small, cheap and harmless (unless swallowed). I listed some of my others when…
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