shelf o' altoids

In a vain attempt to impress Tim Kingman (lord knows why I'd want to do that, as no one impresses the timkingman), I took on an Altoids addiction in the latter years of high school. The only real benefit of this was that I was voted to be the pitchpiper for the Madrigal Singers my senior year, as I was the Keeper of the Altoids for the group. As homage, I have assembled an Altoids Shrine on a shelf in my bedroom over the years:


(click to enlarge)

Front row there: cinnamon/peppermint/spearmint "trio tin," lemon sours, orange sours, apple sours, raspberry sours, "tiny tin," sour apple chewing gum, sour cherry chewing gum, cinnamon chewing gum, peppermint chewing gum, sugar-free "smalls," ginger, peppermint breath strips, and cinnamon breath strips. Behind the breath strips are two tins of "bilingual" Altoids (has English and Spanish labeling and metric measurements, bought them in Florida), and wintergreen Altoids. In the back, spearmint, peppermint (2), cinnamon, and wintergreen Altoids, and "the big tin." As far as I know, the only one I don't have (sold around here, anyway) is the licorice flavor, which I just couldn't bring myself to buy, even just for display. It's amusing to meet people I haven't seen since high school who still associate me with handing out free Altoids (catchphrases: "are you 'in'?"; "huzzah!"). I've pretty much forgotten about it, honestly. Now I carry Eclipse gum instead.

By the way, in the background on the left side is the 7" green translucent vinyl They Might Be Giants single of O Tannenbaum.