You know you're really a Fisher-Price Little People collector when:

• You pay $40 for some very tiny lime-green bathroom scales.
• These acronyms make sense to you: FPLP, FPCC.
• When you see "Set #2500" you know, without looking at any reference, that
  they are talking about "Main Street".
• Your heart skips a beat when you see a pink dragon at a flea market.
• Your phone bill is $50. You made one call to your mom, the rest to other collectors.
• You are not sure which you are looking forward to more, December 25th or August 23rd, the day that the annual Toyfest Toy Fair in Aurora, NY begins. On second thought, you're sure.
• You are anxiously awaiting your next copy of "The Gabby Goose", the newsletter put out by the Fisher-Price Collector's Club.
• Your week is planned like this: Thursday, thrift stores; Friday, garage sales; Saturday, flea markets.
• When you make a big find, you say: "I thought I'd died and gone to East Aurora, NY."
• You own Linda Baker's "Modern Toys", but find it unsatisfying. You are annoyed that there is no comprehensive book listing all the playsets and pieces.
• Your spouse starts to nibble on your ear and you wonder why the stuff you traded for didn't arrive today, and maybe it will arrive tomorrow.
• On your way to your mother-in-law's you make your husband drive 20 miles out of the way to a flea market "just in case" they have Little People.
• At the grocery store you purchase the store brand to save 5 cents, but last week you spent $5 on one yellow life preserver.
• You aren't sure you want your kids to play with your stuff.
• You are jealous that your friend has the castle horse armor, but you try very hard not to let it affect your relationship.
• You realize that people who collect Fisher-Price Little People are some of the nicest people around. You know because you have met or talked to at least thirty or forty of them.
• You can't remember what your car costs, but you know what you spent on every piece in every playset you own, and who you got it from.
• You are patting yourself on the back because you had the foresight to save the box to the airport your little boy received for his birthday years ago.
• You start to think $150 for a McDonalds that has never been opened isn't such a bad price.
• When your little boy received a Beauty Salon for his birthday six years ago you thought "what a strange present for a little boy". Now you are so thankful.
• The church nursery has the beds from the Neighborhood. You briefly consider taking them, but then decide that would be stealing.
• It makes you really annoyed that you have the car to the drive-in and the beauty salon, but not to the small gas station.
• You name your Little People. They each have their own personality.
• You found it hard to imagine the new fat Little People becoming collectible one day.
• Friends and neighbors know what you want for your birthday, but have no clue where to get it.
• You actually feel sick to your stomach when you hear the rumor that all the Little People bits and pieces were sent to the crusher in 1993.
• In your will you totally ignore your jewelry, but specify exactly who gets which playset.
• The children at the preschool where you work seem to prefer Fisher-Price Little People toys. Maybe that's because you set them out and call attention to them, leaving the other toys on the shelf.
• Someone invites you to use a powerful search engine on the Internet, placing a world of information at your fingertips. You immediately type two words: "fisher" and "price".
  
  
  Written by Joyce Kreuter - "mostly based on my life, exaggerated for effect". Reprinted with permission 12/96.