Myrtle Young; The Potato Chip Collector

Myrtle Young; The Potato Chip Collector

 

The older I get, the more I love potato chips, and things made with them including potato chip chicken and yes, potato chip cookies.  I love the flavored examples, Lays prawn, gyros, Reuben, and Pringles in all their varieties.  I think sea salt & vinegar are my favorites.   I don’t even need dip any more.  It follows that other people share the passion, but one very unusual lady took it a step further.  She collected potato chips that looked like faces or other figural objects.  Her collection and plans for a museum landed her on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1987.  As an aside, it was October 16^th, and  Carson was joking about earthquakes in the Los Angeles area.  Almost to the day two years later in 1989, we had one, a big one.

Public Domain Image of Johnny Carson looking at Myrtle's Figural Chip

 

Back to chips, and what they have to do with dolls. Well, let’s “face” it; I have sympathy for anyone who wants to start a museum.  Also, I was hooked when Ms. Young said she saw faces in the chips, and sure enough, one looked like Tweety bird, another like a smiley face.  Another looked like Snoopy, one was a dinosaur.  A delicate candle shown through one chip.  Another was a dog’s face; they were all very clear.  She was inspired to collect because she worked as a chip inspector, and had to select those that didn’t make the grade.

Myrtle's Potato Chips in their Tupperware Case. Public Domain Image

 

I thought of little dolls I have made from pieces of orange peel, painted to look like Santas and other characters.  Others I have are made of crushed soda cans that have been painted. Pieces of shell and driftwood in my collection are also painted to look like little figures. An article on prehistoric dolls postulated that the first Stone Age dolls may have been a rock or piece of wood that resembled a person. Dolls are not only where you find them, but how you see them.

 

So, the potato chip lady isn’t far off.  Dolls, and art, can come from anything.  Don’t smirk; how many of you out there look at clouds, or ink blots, and see all kinds of shapes! Actually, I collected a potato chip bag of Voodoo Doll potato chips that boast spicy New Orleans flavor.

 

If people can have their potatoes that look like late President Richard Nixon, or pieces of toast imprinted with the image of Jesus or The Virgin Mary, Ms. Young can have her anthropomorphic potato chips!   Myrtle Young died in 2014 at age 90.  May she rest in peace,  and I hope her collection, lovingly kept in Tupperware cake pans,  is somewhere kept safe in her memory.

Public Domain Image