Button, Button Who’s Got the Button

Story ID:	654
Written by:	Gail Lee Martin
Organization:	Kansas Authors Club
Story type:	Only Here
Location:	Greenwood County Kansas USA
Year:	1940
Person:	Marie Joy & Cora Martin

Do you remember playing the game “Button, button who’s got the button” in grade school? Or at children’s parties years ago? I remember the game being played whenever a group of small children were together. All but two players would set in a circle with their palms placed in a horizontal “prayer” position. One of the two remaining friends passed around the circle concealing the button between someone’s palms. The other person was “It” and tried to guess where the button was hidden.

I remember this game was a lot of fun until I had to be “It”. I never was sneaky enough in passing the button around the circle of outstretched hands without getting caught. So I ended up being “It” over and over.

Did you ever wonder where they got the button in the first place? In many homes there is some sort of container that buttons seem to find a final resting place. Are yours in a special box for just buttons? Maybe in a fancy enameled tin or just in a jar with a lid? All loose buttons in our house are in a wide-mouth glass jar because I love to see the kaleidoscope of colors. My mother used to toss them into a drawer of the sewing machine, where they always drifted to the bottom of the drawer. Today's generation seem to think the button is like the penny. Not worth saving.

The word button comes from the French word “Bouton,” which means a knob. Back in the 17th and 18th centuries people wore buttons for ornaments, even kings and queens were laden with costly gold, silver and jeweled buttons. Erma Reynolds referred to these legendary royalty as “button mad” or “button gluttons” in her article in the April 1997 Stitch’n Sew magazine.

Button enthusiasts love to display their collection of buttons in unique ways. In Madison, Ind., one collection is exhibited on the walls of a café owned by the collector. Another woman in Roger, Ark., used her accumulation of buttons to make a beautiful rendition of the “Last Supper.” Then I read about Dallas Stevens, the “Button King” of Bishopville, S. C., who was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records when he covered his car with 100,000 buttons.

Pam Lilley of Topeka and her sister-in-law, Lori Coleman of El Dorado admires buttons so much they include them in their craft projects. Lori makes eye-catching wooden baskets by adding a colorful design composed of buttons, ribbons and lace. Pam strings buttons to make intriguing arms and legs for a variety of stuffed animals and dolls, even Santa Claus has string of buttons for legs. Pam also dresses up little glass jars of buttons with old doilies and bright ribbons. A cute idea that I could use on my jar of buttons with one of my mother’s hand crocheted doilies.

My niece received a priceless heirloom when she was given her grandma’s button collection thirty five years ago. The background material on the button display has become worn with age and the weight of all the buttons is causing the material to rip and tear. Resulting in Vickie putting the precious keepsake in safe storage.

Vickie’s grandmother, Cora (Joy) Martin and great-grandmother, Marie Joy, joined the ranks of button collectors during the “depression years.” The women, always thrifty, saved buttons from worn-out garments and used them again and again. Cora’s four sons and four daughters grew up wearing her homemade clothing. As the children married and moved away from home the buttons finally began to add up.

In the early 1940s Cora and Marie became fascinated with the diversity of the buttons they had accumulated in old cardboard shoe boxes. Cora saved more buttons when she began converting old clothes into large colorful balls to be woven into lovely rag rugs for her children and 28 grandchildren. During World War II Cora and her sister-in-law, Sarah Martin, collected and traded the large heavy gold colored military buttons.

Marie with more time on her hands started sewing the vast array of buttons onto a large square of sturdy blue jean material. Eventually two large four by four foot panels were completely covered in a picturesque array of buttons. After her mother passed away in 1945 Cora took over the tedious task of sewing buttons on the material for display.

The family found these words in Cora’s journal of July 1953, “Hung the buttons.” Another entry in October of the same year simply stated, “Sorted buttons.” At this time Cora was living in Reading, Kansas where her husband owned a grocery store.

Two panels made from navy blue corduroy were added to the collection. Each of these panels are covered with large stars of buttons. The star shaped outlines, eight inches across were drawn and filled with a certain color of buttons. One star is filled with white buttons, another star contains red buttons. There are stars of green buttons, gold buttons, black buttons, silver buttons, crystal buttons and two with mixed colors making nine beautiful stars on each panel.

When the Martin cousins get together they love to explore the old button collection. Each time someone usually finds a button they hadn’t noticed before. There are buttons of many geometric designs. The cousins found squares, rectangles, triangles, ovals as well as circles. There are buttons made of wood, metal, pewter, brass, plastic, glass, crystal, porcelain and enamel.

The Martin collection has a wide variety of types besides the military ones. In one section there are buttons representing different railroads including Rock Island, Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Mogul, and Southern Pacific lines. Nearby is one embossed just as Pullman.

The ever popular button pins are sprinkled throughout the mass of buttons. They portray everything from political campaign buttons to social organizations, manufacturing companies to Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. A button for every conceivable function. Modern types of closers, such as zippers, were hard on the button industry. The button is still around mainly due to it’s decorative status in the dress-making industry.

A lot of the buttons in the collection are classified as “realistic” or “goofies” as identified in the Button, Button book of identifications and price guide by Peggy Ann Osborne. “Goofies” were mass-produced shortly after the turn of the century. These buttons are molded in shapes of fruit, animals and many items that represent life in the 20th century.

Some of the most easily recognized buttons are five distinctive cigarettes packages. They represent cigarettes popular in the fifty’s: Lucky Strike, Old Gold, Fatima, Camel and Chesterfield. In the same area are buttons molded in the shape of a Scottie dog, an elephant, several types of shoes, purses and a red butterfly.

Many of the buttons have slogans or logos on them. These include “Kansas State”; “Local 402”; “Red Cross 1919” and “Emporia Club” with a rooster pictured in the center. Others were “USO, United Service Organization”; “Liberty Loan” and a humorous white button with a red border stating “I would like to but my wife won’t let me.”

The family wonders if there is any suggestive reason in the political slogans. There are several versions of “IKE” and “Landon & Knox,” American Hero, Gen. McArthur,” “I’m for Nikon,” “Burke for governor” and a “Wilkie” button. The “Roosevelt and Wallace” button had an ear of corn slantwise between the names. Then one button proudly proclaims, “Arthur Capper for governor” with his picture enclosed in Celluloid.

Two Celluloid buttons have special meaning to the Martin family. One is of Cora when she was a young girl and one is a picture of her son, Ralph, in his Air Force uniform. I imagine that in the next 25 years, more generations of Martin cousins will be gathering to admire grandma’s button collection and wonder about the stories behind each button as it was collected, now lost in the past.


published in Kanhistique, March 1997

The last picture is my two necklaces I made from buttons.