New Hampshire State Button Society
About Us
The year 1952. Harry Truman was president of the United States and Dwight Eisenhower is the present-elect. You might have been to the movies to see “Singing in the Rain” or “The Quiet Man”. On the radio it was just the start of some rock and roll tunes and you might hear Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable” or “Heart and Soul” or maybe “I Saw Mommie Kissing Santa Claus”. It was a different age in many ways. Most women were stay at home mothers, Birdseye had just introduced Frozen Peas at the grocery market and you might get some green stamps as you check out. The kids might have been sporting a coonskin cap, using a hula hoop or going to watch 3-D movies. It was the year “Mad-magazine debuted along with the soap opera “Guiding Light”. On the television (which was not in every home) you might have watched “Hopalong Cassidy”, “The Lone Ranger”, “Gene Autrey”, “Roy Rogers” or “Sky King”.
The year 1952 the New Hampshire Button Society was formed. Since then there have been so many changes in our lives but buttons have remained a fun collectible. Throughout this time there have been dedicated button collectors. They have held many meetings, National Conventions and button clubs have continued. Members have changed but the interest in buttons has held a group of people together as the New Hampshire Button Society.
Two people have seen this all happen. Ann Whitcomb and Robert Leavitt, still New Hampshire State members, have been members since the club’s inception.
So as we celebrate the past fifty years, can we help but wonder what the next fifty will bring? Let us hope that buttons will still be a delight in 2051, as well.
Written by Shirley Richardson; printed in the 2002 New Hampshire State Button Society Newsletter.
Click this link to download and print the NHSBS Constitution and by-laws.
New Hampshire State Button Society list of Officers:
President - Shirley Richardson
Vic president - Sharon Evans
Treasurer - Wayne Nichols
Secretary - Mary Ellen Shelzi
Membership Secretary - Thelma Nichols
Awards Chair - Julie Curley
Historian - Mary Ellen Shelzi
NERBA Directors - Thelma Nichols, Zelda Lavanaway, Deborah Hanson
Website designed by Deborah Hanson