YAKIMA -- Before political candidates had their own MySpace and Facebook pages or even bumper stickers, they had buttons. Ken Gustafson was just a kid in those days and not too interested in politics. But political buttons were another matter. He'd pick them up at places like booths at state and county fairs. "I didn't know one from the other, and I didn't care," says Gustafson, who picked up about 100 presidential campaign buttons, some of them more than once. Today, he has multiples of several lapel pins, some of which date back more than 70 years. There's a few Alf Landon-for-president pins from 1936, featuring the candidate's signature sunflower motif. And there's a few more from the 1940 race between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Wendell Lewis Willkie. Those are probably Gustafson's favorite ones. That's because Roosevelt "was a great leader," the retired Yakima photographer and great-grandfather says. "He was well-respected. It was through his programs that we moved out of the Depression. "As a young person, I looked at him as very patriotic," Gustafson says. "He was more patriotic than political. He came across as a proud American." Willkie's campaign punched out millions of slogan buttons in rapid response to news items about his opponent in what became one of the most famous uses of campaign buttons. These days, Gustafson says he's not sure what -- if anything -- his buttons are worth. He says he hangs onto them merely because they remind him of his boyhood. They're "a little bit of history," he says. They're also a piece of Americana. In today's Internet age, campaign buttons are somewhat of a novelty item, part of the hobby of collecting. A quick search of eBay, the Internet auction site, shows bidding starts on some vintage political buttons as low as 99 cents. But it goes up from there. There's a group of 11 old buttons for $271 and single FDR pins for upwards of $20 each. One "Youth for Roosevelt" pin, like one Gustafson has, is priced at $8.50. Gustafson didn't play favorites; he collected both Democratic and Republican campaign buttons. But, he says, "I didn't fool with governors; I wanted presidents only." In 1941, Gustafson went off to war. He spent the bulk of World War II in the South Pacific aboard the U.S.S. Tangier -- and forgot about his buttons. "It was just a kid thing," says Gustafson, now 83. He guesses his mother must've thrown in a few later on, because there's an "Ike in 56" button in the collection, along with one that reads "Win with Wallace in 1968." Gustafson's not sure how the "Bush Quayle 88" button got in there. He rediscovered his campaign button collection about 10 or so years ago, after his mother's death. She had saved them for him, along with some World War II-era newspapers. Gustafson doesn't collect campaign buttons anymore. But these days he does care about politics. And the World War II veteran is watching this year's presidential race with interest. Though he's still "undecided," he says he favors someone with strong military experience. Only John McCain fills that bill as a pilot and prisoner of war in Vietnam. "I didn't give my life for my country, but I offered it," he says. "Hillary or Obama -- neither one of them are military people."     YAKIMA -- Before political candidates had their own MySpace and Facebook pages or even bumper stickers, they had buttons. Ken Gustafson was just a kid in those days and not too interested in politics. But political buttons were another matter. He'd pick t City Desk, LOCAL

2008-03-10T17:54:06Z

By ADRIANA JANOVICH

2008-03-11T23:07:04Z

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2008-03-13T00:31:42Z

Childhood hobby sticks with him 2252 childhood-hobby-sticks-with-him Web Story

Yakima Herald-Republic

YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

2008-03-12T00:00:00Z

6079551

03/12/08 buttons published Web Daily

2009-03-20T02:24:48Z