I've been collecting buttons since 1964 when my local pusher enticed me with freebies until I was hooked. My passion has waxed and waned with time, so I now have somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 different buttons -- a paltry number to the serious collector, who usually loses count at 20,000. And I have never quite reached the fervor of some devotees, who have given up a whole room of their house to store their buttons, and who have also given up all their spare time and change to collect them. Like most collectors, however, once I reached the moment of truth -- the realization that I couldn't collect every button ever printed -- I had to become a specialist. Since I am a feminist, it was natural that my ambition would be to have the world's largest feminist button collection.