Schlimm, of course, means 'terrible' in the language which we'd all be speaking if a certain Charlie Chaplin-like person had had his way all those many years ago. And Reinhold Schlimm is the name of a certain person who left a comment on my facebook page which led me to discover his collection of empty softdrink cans. Schlimm indeed!
I guess we all have the collecting instinct in us. I started collecting postage stamps when I was a boy in Germany. Selling that collection to raise the money for my fare out to Australia put a final stop to that.
For the next twenty years I travelled light and didn't collect anything other than work experience. Since settling down at "Riverbend" I have been collecting books, at first in mint condition and, after discovering op-shops, second-hand, and movies, first on videos and then on DVDs.
I've always felt a bit guilty about my collecting habit (although not as bad as a certain model railway collector in the U.K. whose collection grew so big that his family had to move out of the house), but seeing Sclimm's collection of empty softdrink cans makes me feel slightly better. His collection is really 'schlimm', but there's hope for me yet!
And just think, Des, what a big collection of empty COKE cans you would have by now, if back then in Camp 6 you had started "doing a Schlimm"!
