when technology claims the things we love

i have many hobbies. most of which deal with the collecting of specific groups of items and all of which are, at the very best, half-assed.

over the years, i have collected everything from matchbooks to pint glasses to coins and paper money, subway tokens, comic books, vinyl records, funny hats and ticket stubs. some of these items, i still actively pursue. others, i have abandoned or they have abandoned me*. i don't remember the last time i grabbed a matchbook simply to keep it. of course, given that smoking is now prohibited in many of the locales where i once would have found a matchbook, it was not hard to walk away from that particular hobby. and they don't even make subway tokens anymore.

which leads me to my point. the one, constant collection i have maintained since my high school days is that of ticket stubs and programs. i love having a tangible and wholly unique reminder of the things and events that i have been able to see over the years. i distinctly remember a large coca-cola bottle shaped bank that i had growing up, which was never more than an inch or so full of actual money...but often times filled more so with worn stubs to the various movies i had seen throughout junior high and high school (the oldest one that i recall was for back to the future II at the old dickinson cinema 8 in my hometown). most of these didn't survive the abuse of being thrown in amongst pennies and dimes for years and years and thereby went the way of the trash can with little to no fanfare. but in and among those little movie stubs was a thin, paper ticket to a live production of cats in london's west end that i had seen on a high school choir trip the summer after my junior year.

i'm not sure the exact day, but i clearly remember looking at that stub and thinking "man, that's getting beat up in that bank. maybe i should put it somewhere and try and keep it nice."

i found an old magnetic scrapbook in the attic and started putting ticket stubs in it. and just like that, a collection started.

to this day, i still have the same book. and though i have had to replace and add pages over the years, it still remains pretty much the same: theatre tickets in the front. then concerts. then a page of ku basketball tickets followed by baseball tickets from stadiums all over the country. then some random sports tickets. museum tickets followed by some special event tickets. one page with only my ticket to the world trade center observation deck from august, 2001. and finally in the back, some of the more interesting (in my mind) travel-related stubs, including my ticket from newark to london on that trip back in high school.

so what?

no real point, other than to say that i have noticed over the past couple of years it has become increasingly difficult to procure these tiny, paper mementos. with the dawn of the e-ticket, i have to pay special attention when ordering something to make sure that i am going to receive an actual ticket instead of an email link and instructions on how to print it out (conveniently) at home.

for the most part, i have been successful. but for how long? a couple of weeks ago, i ordered tickets to see one of my favorite bands, depeche mode, for the first time in 15 years. i specifically requested the tickets be sent to me via the mail and when i received them...they were actual tickets, but they don't look that much different than if i were to take my confirmation email to kinkos ** and have them print it off on standard printer paper.

so, how much longer before the "old-style" ticket stub goes the way of the subway token?

i guess, like any true collector, i can't let that stop me. as long as there is a printer hooked up to my computer, i suppose i'm all set.

it just won't be the same.


* - i even started collecting dollar tokens from casinos in las vegas...until they stopped making them altogether as well.

** - or some other place that's not kinkos.

change we can believe in