Disclaimer: This article is based on actual news from the real world – honestly! However, it has been sprinkled with a healthy dose of satire.
Some might look at a brick and just see a chunk of hard clay, but for one Oklahoma man it isn’t just another brick in the wall – it’s a little piece of glory.
The man in question, an 87-year-old great-grandfather, collects bricks – and why not? Especially when your treasure trove gets recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest, with 8,882 different bricks.
You would be smiling too if you had a barn full of thousands of really cool bricks. (guinnessworldrecords/Instagram)
The man keeps his bricks in a barn in Tulsa. Does he plan to build anything with all those blocks of hardened clay? “What? Why would I do that? These are bricks we’re talking about here. What an odd question.”
He organizes his pride-and-joy collection by each slab’s state of origin, and there are international bricks too – not too shabby! Some notable ones he has amassed include a brick from Ancient Rome, around 100 A.D., and a brick that spells “Tulsa” with a backward S. Misspellings can make for more valuable items, the man says. Not to mention presumably all the laughs – some good-natured, others mocking the ignoramuses who made the mistake. What were they thinking?!
Misprints: Embarrassing for manufacturers but gold for collectors! (guinnessworldrecords/Instagram)
The world record came as a surprise: while the man was away, his family counted and recorded all the bricks in the barn. Sneaky behavior, sure, but on the bright side, it eventually led to the official record verification. Upon his return, you might say the shocking certification hit the man like a ton of bricks.
The Big Bad Wolf doesn’t stand a chance. (guinnessworldrecords/Instagram)
The brick collector copped to it being an “unusual” thing to do but said he enjoys it. He likes that bricks have names and historical dates attached to them. “Yeah, so do coins,” said a jealous coin collector in an interview. “But you don’t see me waxing poetic about it in interviews. Also, if the Guinness people are reading this, I am very available.”
The Oklahoma man noted that any kind of collection can often get bigger than initially intended. Fair enough, though few stamp collectors require an entire barn to house their collection. “I only planned on amassing about 5,000 bricks, like a normal person. But it’s grown to nearly 9,000, which admittedly is on the verge of being a lot.”
This article is based on fully factual news, so if we got it wrong, blame these guys, we’re just here to make it funny.
