I had a pretty good head start! But I do love the collectible stuff, too, especially display pieces I can put on the wall and look at all the time. A lot of them are not particularly valuable, like my collection of WJ Associated News Service broadsides (I have seven different, most from 1924) and rotogravure Sunday newspaper supplement full pages devoted to him or the '24 and '25 world series), but I love them just the same or more than some others worth big bucks. Or course, I treasure the personal stuff, too. I'm asked all the time about what autographed material I have, and I joke that I have a bunch of letters, but they aren't worth very much because they're either signed just "Walter" or "Dad"--to my grandmother and mother. It's great fun for me to be the grandson of Walter Johnson, but it helps to be into this stuff, too, including the history. I have thirteen first cousins on that side, and as far as I can tell not one of them could really care less about any of it.
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