The Bead Collector

"Pearl" (ha!) pop beads

1956. My first beads were pop-beads, a 1950's fad. I coveted them and competed with my girlfriends for the longest strands, draping myself in ropes of them. My favorites were pearls. Then one day the cheesy paint on one of the "pearls" peeled off It revealed a bead no more lustrous than skim milk. I was stunned. Why did people think children should be satisfied with crap? At the age of eight I was pondering authenticity. When my mother made me dresses , she finished...